On communication. An interdisciplinary and mathematical approach. (Q886634)

This research monograph offers an innovative and very much unique perspective at communications by bringing forward two important facets of communication theory and practice. On the one hand, the concept of communication permeates the areas of natural and computer sciences. On the other, communication is one of the fundamental pursuits encountered in social and cognitive disciplines such as e.g., sociology, economics, and psychology. The book elaborates on some important methodological developments underlying a position that communication needs to be understood as a vital interdependency of two forms of dynamics such as social and cognitive ones. The exposure of the material is arranged into eight chapters which unveil the key theses of the study. Chapter 2 offers an interesting discussion on complex systems theory which could be sought as a sound prerequisite for further investigations. Chapters 3--5 build a core part of the book by addressing issues of the meaning of information being cast in the semantic dimension (Chapter 3), and elaborating on social and cognitive facets of communication (covered in Chapter 4 and 5, respectively). Chapter 6 is devoted to some general expressions of communicative processes where the introduced formalism becomes interesting in the sense it brings some computational aspects to the overall discussion. Chapter 7 is focused on some examples which illustrate the main concepts presented in the earlier parts of the book. Finally, Chapter 8 serves as a concise epilogue providing some comments on human cognition and communication. The material is presented in a coherent way. The authors avoided a great deal of formalism albeit brought enough rigor so that the reader can fully appreciate their vision and contemplate possible technical realizations of the underlying concepts. Illustrative material coming in the form of brief simulation schemes is a genuine asset of the monograph. The reference list is rather concise yet provides a solid start for further studies. All in all, this is a highly welcome contribution stressing the genuine need for new comprehensive and unified view at the discipline of communication.