Understanding and Changing the World: From Information to Knowledge and Intelligence

This book discusses the importance of knowledge as an intangible asset, separate from physical entities, that can enable us to understand and/or change the world. It provides a thorough treatment of knowledge, one that is free of ideological and philosophical preconceptions, and which relies exclusively on concepts and principles from the theory of computing and logic. It starts with an introduction to knowledge as truthful and useful information, and its development and management by computers and humans. It analyses the relationship between computational processes and physical phenomena, as well as the processes of knowledge production and application by humans and computers.