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Original Russian Text I.M. Zatsman, 2013, published in Nauchno-Technicheskaya Informatsiya, Seriya 1, 2013,
No. 3, pp. 112.




Computer and Information Science: Background of Formation
I. M. Zatsman
Institute of Informatics Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia e-mail:
izatsman@yandex.ru
Received February 11, 2013


AbstractThe approaches of S. Gorn and Yu. Shreider to the integration of computer and
information sciences in order to form a unified area of knowledge, i.e., computer and
information science, are compared. A description of the characteristic features of this area of
knowledge, which is the scientific basis for the development of the future generation of
information technologies, is given. Conceptual and policy documents of the 7th Framework
Program of the European Union are considered in which the necessity of reconsideration of
the theoretical foundations of the development of new information technologies is
demonstrated. One of the possible approaches for their reconsideration on the basis of Gorn
and Shreiders ideas is presented.

Keywords: information science, computer science, informatics as computer and information
science, future generation information technology
DOI: 10.3103/S0147688213030052

INTRODUCTION
In the 21st century a fundamental reconsideration of
the theoretical foundations of the development of the
next generation of information and converged
technologies has become one of the key preconditions
for establishing computer and information science
as a field of general scientific knowledge. The
analysis of the training of specialists for the
development of new technologies conducted by Marc
Snir showed that the education program should
integrate computer and information sciences [1]. In
the second half of the 20th century, the need for their
integration was foreseen by Saul Gorn [27] and Yuli
(Julius) Shreider [8, 9]. Currently, the ideas of Gorn
and Shreider have become very popular. This is
indicated by the conceptual and policy papers on the
development of future generation information and
communication technologies discussed in this article
[1015], as well as by convergent technologies
included in 2011 in the competition of the Russian
Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) focused on
basic research. In this paper, we present one of the
possible options for the development of the ideas of
Gorn and Shreider.
April 2013 marks 50 years since the paper by
Gorn The Computer and Information Sciences: a
New Basic Discipline was published [2]. Over a 20-
year period (19631983) Gorn published a series of
papers that argued the need for the teaching of a
complex of subjects relating to the new area of
knowledge that would integrate computer and
information sciences. In 1963, Gorn used the plural
for this area of knowledge, i.e., computer and
information sciences. The singular appeared in 1982
in the title of his paper Informatics (Computer and
Information Science): its Ideology, Methodology,
and Sociology, i.e., 20 years after the publication of
the first paper of this series [6]. Fifty years ago Gorn
considered the result of the integration of computer
and information sciences as a new basic science,
which is reflected in the title of his first work by the
phrase a new basic discipline [2].
Another approach to the definition of informatics as
computer and information science and a unified area
of knowledge was proposed by Yu. Shreider [8, 9].
His results were obtained independently from Gorn,
but their ideological approaches are very similar in
many ways. In Shreiders paper Information and
Knowledge it is argued that two informatics do not
exist (information science and computer science) but
rather there are two aspects of informatics. The first
one (information science) is further loaded with
concepts of traditional information services by
specialistsscientists and engineers in their
professional areas. The second aspect (computer
science) is wrongfully distorted by purely programmer
problems that are not specific to informatics. The
specific problems of informatics are associated with
the problems of information representation of
knowledge in a form suitable for processing,
transmitting, and creative reconstruction as a result of
a users efforts [9, p. 51].
The ideas of Gorn and Shreider, which are briefly
reviewed in the second section of this paper, have
been almost completely forgotten. A more detailed
description of their approaches can be found in [16,
17], which are used in this paper. The ideas of Gorn
and Shreider were revived in the early 21st century.
Similar approaches were reformulated in a reduced
form and offered as a theoretical basis for the
development of new information and convergent
technologies.
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At the same time, as a rule, the works of the
founders of the fundamental approaches to the
description of informatics as computer and
information science are not mentioned. The third
section of this paper contains an example of a
reduced approach to the integration of computer and
information sciences.
The fourth section of the paper explores current
issues of the purposeful generation of new knowledge
systems. The results of simulations and experiments
for the creation of information technologies for the
generation of new systems of expert knowledge are
analyzed. These results were obtained on the basis of
the approaches of Gorn and Shreider. Models devel-
oped on the basis of their ideas made it possible to
describe the generation and evolution of expert
knowledge in the dynamics of their formation [18].

1 SHREIDER AND GORN: INFORMATICS
AS INFORMATION AND
COMPUTER SCIENCE
Already in 1963, Gorn had listed a number of
issues that relate to computer and information
science, Examples of general topics of study in it
might be programming systems, computer system
design, artificial intelligence, and information
retrieval. The probabilistic information theory of
Shannon clearly belongs to this area, but there is a
theory of mechanistic information and its processing,
which must also be included. Thus, a central topic in
the new discipline would be the synthesis and
analysis of mechanical languages and their
processors [2, p. 150].
After listing the areas of research, Gorn considered
computer and information science as an academic
discipline. He compared a new area of knowledge
with other disciplines in terms of the educational
process and formulated the following questions. How
can a student know whether the scope of their
interests belongs to a new area of knowledge and not
to one of the already well-established disciplines?
What education do they need in order to delve into
this new area of knowledge? Gorn considers issues of
teaching starting from the pragmatic aspects of
research:
Thus a student of numerical analysis who
designs or studies an algorithm is thinking like a
mathematician if his only concern is its existence
or validity; he is thinking like a computer and
information scientist if he considers it as a
processor and is concerned with its efficiency,
timing and control, tabular layout or storage
allocation, etc.
Similarly, a student of a procedure that exhibits
adaptive control akin to intelligence is thinking like
a psychologist if his main concern is whether he
has a good model of the behavior of some animal; he
is thinking about artificial intelligence, a topic in
computer and information science, if he is only
concerned about its usefulness as a control
element, whether it is like some animal behavior or
not.
A student of a generative or recognitional gram-
mar is thinking like a linguist if his main concern is
whether a natural language actually works a certain
way, or grew in a certain way; he is thinking like a
computer and information scientist if his main
concern is whether an information system can be
efficiently controlled in a certain way. Thus, the
linguist may be concerned about a push-down
controlled storage being no deeper that seven, since
some consider that this is the local memory span of
a human; an information scientist would not
necessarily do so [2, p. 154].
After considering these questions, Gorn gives the
list of disciplines that should be taught to students of
computer and information science, including mathe-
matics, physics, philosophy, linguistics, psychology,
computer science, and computer programming. The
proposed approach to the study of computer and
information science was tested at the University of
Pennsylvania. Twenty years later, in 1983, when
some experience in this field was accumulated, Gorn
wrote that his understanding of the concept of
computer and information science lies in the fact that
this area of knowledge is not a branch of
mathematics, because it should relate itself to
pragmatic issues that mathematics should not depend
on [7, p. 137].
Gorns paper published in 1983 begins with the
following sentence: Let me, first of all, choose a
shorter expression than Computer and Information
Science. Like the French (Informatique) and the
German (Informatik), let me choose the word
Informatics. It contains the idea of information,
and has an ending like that of Mathematics, implying
a formally based theory. It is too bad that it loses the
computational component in its name and also
leaves no impression of an experimental basis" [7, p.
121].
In 1983, under the term Informatics Gorn
understood computer and information science.
Before making the primary conclusion on the
necessity of the unified area of knowledge he turned
back to its roots:
All that I said about computing is focused on
practical activities and is connected with a com-
puter. But the theory of computation had been
already formed and existed by the time when digital
computers appeared. Experts in the field of
symbolic logic had already studied the logical limits
of computation, a universal Turing machine had
been described and the unsolvability problem of the
halting problem had been proved, Gdel had
demonstrated the limits of formalism with his
insolubility theorems, Church, Kleene, and Currie
had analyzed the calculations in the recursive
function theory and combinatorial logic, Thue and
Post, and later
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The title of Gorns paper Year of publication
Citation according
to the Web of Science
(as of March 2012)
The computer and information sciences: a new basic
discipline

The individual and political life of information sys-
tems
Computer and information sciences and the com-
munity of disciplines
Computer and information sciences: their funda-
mental semiotic concept and relationships
Informatics (computer and information science):
its ideology, methodology, and sociology
1963

1965

1967

1968

1982 (the first journal publication),
1983 (the second publication)
16

2

53

3

12 (citation of the first (1) and
the second (11) publication)

Table


















Markov, had considered calculating from the
syntactic point of view. when computers
appeared, the language issues of Noam Chomsky
were discussed in computer terms As a result of
these new developments descriptions of linguistic
aspects of programming and mathematical theory
of automata and formal languages appeared. These
results, in turn, influenced the development of
programming languages and the design of
computers. Now, under informatics we
understand something associated with the
synthesis and analysis of symbolic expressions, as
well as the synthesis and analysis of processors
that interpret, translate, and process such
expressions. At a more prosaic level, informatics
deals with studying, designing, and using data
structures and their processing [7, p. 131].
The main conclusion that was made by Gorn,
with which he terminates the paper in 1983, is the
following:
We should not separate computer science
from information science, but we should try to
maintain the common area of knowledge,
informatics. Any attempt to encourage the
separation entails the separation of practice
from knowledge This separation will cause the
termination of active turmoil, which is supported
by the fusion of knowledge and practice [7, p.
139140].
In 1988, i.e., 5 years after the publication in
1983, which concluded the series of Gorns papers,
independently from him a conceptually similar
approach was proposed by Shreider. In his paper
[9], he formulated a number of provisions of the
paradigm of informatics:
Information is a public property, it is
conceptually social, while knowledge is
generally correlated with a specific person,
with those who own and use it. Information
should go through a cognitive shield of
those for whom it is of value. Thus, there is a
need to reckon not only with the existence of
the world of objectified and socialized knowledge,
i.e., information as a converted form of knowledge,
but also with the phenomenon of personal
knowledge. At the same time, the identity of
information and knowledge is excluded, but
information as a transformed form of knowledge
retains traces of its origin. The most fundamental
issues of computer science have always appeared at
the intersection of information and knowledge,
where it was a question of turning one into the
other. Next, Schrader writes about the gap that
separates information and knowledge as entities of
different natures (emphasis added) [9, p. 5051].
In the same paper, Shreider compares his approach
to the definition of the terms information and
knowledge with the approach of C. Brooks [19]. He
described the essence of the approach of Brooks as
follows:
In fact, Brooks recognizes the identity of
information and knowledge as entities (emphasis
added). He built the foundations of information
science based on the concept of the Third World
[Karl Popper [20]]. He defines information as an
increment of knowledge [9, p. 49].
In this paper, Shreider wrote about the history of
formation of the concept of information science of
A.I. Mikhailov, A.I. Chernyi, and R.S. Gilyarevskiy
as a science that studies the information associated
with knowledge and not with the control signals [21].
Fifty years after the publication of the first work of
Gorn [2], the following paradox took place. On the
one hand, the works of Gorn, who predicted the need
for a new area of knowledge, are rarely mentioned, as
shown in the table which is based on data of Web of
Science (http://apps.web ofknowledge.com) on the
titles of Gorns papers and their citation numbers.
On the other hand, currently reduced solutions for
the integration of computer and information sciences
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are proposed that are special cases of the
approaches of Gorn and Shreider. As a rule there are
no links to their works, which indicates that their
ideas have been forgotten. An example of the
proposed reduced approaches and the description of
new problems that can be related to a new area of
knowledge are given in the following two sections of
this paper.
NEW AREAS OF RESEARCH
Today, there are new areas of research that can
have a significant impact on the process of the
integration of computer and information sciences. For
example, at the beginning of the 21st century a
complex area of research called cognitive
informatics began to form [2225]. Its subject area
includes current problems at the intersection of
cognitive, computer and, information sciences. If one
includes these issues in the subject area of computer
and information science, it will have a significant
impact on the construction of its theoretical
foundations. Therefore, we first need to define the
boundaries of a new area of knowledge. In the
process of clarifying these boundaries the following
conceptual and policy documents were used:
(1) An analytical report on the competitiveness of
the USA in the 21st century prepared by the Advisory
Committee on Information Technology under the
President of the USA [26] (information about the
contents of this report in Russian can be found in
[27]).
(2) A description of priority areas of research and
development in information and communication
technologies (ICT) of the 7th Framework Program of
the European Union adopted for the period of 2007
2013.
(3) A description of oriented basic research of the
2011 competition of the Russian Foundation for
Basic Research (RFBR) regarding development of
the fundamentals of the development of convergent
technologies.
Analytical Report

The basic idea of the analytical report is that the
competitiveness of the USA in the 21st century will
be determined largely by the widespread use of new
information technologies in all areas of knowledge
and practical activities [26]. According to the report,
the creation of these technologies will require further
development of the computer industry as a whole and
computer and information science in particular. In the
area of scientific knowledge information technologies
are presented in the report as a component of the triad
scientific theoryscientific experimentinformation
technology that provide simulation and experiments.
The definition of the computing industry proposed
in the report is as follows [26, p. 10]: It is a rapidly
growing multidisciplinary field that uses advanced
computing capabilities to understand and solve
complex problems. Computational science fuses three
distinct elements:
Algorithms (numerical and non-numerical) and
modeling and simulation software developed to solve
science (e.g., biological, physical, and social),
engineering, and humanities problems.
Computer and information science (emphasis
added), which develops and optimizes the advanced
system hardware, software, networking, and data
management components that are needed to solve
computationally demanding problems.
The computing infrastructure that supports both
science and engineering problem solving and
developmental computer and information science.
This definition includes the phrase computer and
information science, which was used by Gorn to
indicate the idea of integration in a series of his
papers. In the analytical report on the competitiveness
of the USA, computer and information science is
understood as one of the three components of the
computing industry. In the report, the subject area of
this science is significantly reduced compared with the
ideas of Gorn and Shreider. Its purpose is determined
by the need to solve computationally complex
problems. By rephrasing Shreider, we can say that in
this approach the appearance of computer and
information science is reduced because of the focus on
computationally complex problems.

Priority Areas of Research and Development
in Information and Communication Technologies
In the documents of the 7th Framework Program of
the European Union eight priority areas of research
and development are formulated including the
Advanced ICT area [1015]. The documents stated
the need for a fundamental reconsideration of the
theoretical foundations of development of the next
generation of ICT. The term computer and
information science is not explicitly used.
The objectives of the projects that are financed
under the Advanced ICT are as follows: The
challenge is the timely identification and
substantiation of new directions that have a high
potential for significant breakthrough and that may
become the foundations of the information and
communication technologies and innovations of
tomorrow. <...>. Research will consist of radical
interdisciplinary explorations of new and alternative
approaches towards future and emerging ICT-related
technologies, aimed at a fundamental reconsideration
of theoretical, methodological, technological and/or
applicative paradigms in ICT (emphasis added) [12,
p. 54].
The cited paper contains the description of several
competitive subjects of the Advanced ICT area,
including ICT forever yours. The description of this
topic implies the need to develop new approaches to
the generation, presentation, and preservation of
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personal knowledge and their integration into the
digital electronic medium and global use, as well,
relevant research problems are formulated [12, p.
5763].
Let us give formulations of two problems that
illustrate the relevance of these areas of research
[12, p. 6263]:
(1) Eternal Systems: to develop a theoretical
and practical framework for extremely longlived
systems, requiring minimal intervention and
management to thrive in spite of changes in usage,
host device, network context or data- and data
protection formats. Systems should be future proof,
able to preserve and update their original
functionality in a machine-independent way, and
ultimately by being self-sustaining and evolving.
(2) Knowledge, diversity and time: New
approaches for eternal and reliable access to
knowledge assets, in which knowledge parts are
produced locally, but exploited globally, and are
endowed with a sense of time and context to make
them robust against ageing, diversity of use and
evolving semantics.
Note that in the wording of the second problem
the key terms are knowledge and knowledge
parts and the term information is missing. This
reflects the current urgency and applied relevance of
research processes of generation and development
of new methods of computer representations of
knowledge in the dynamics of their formation. From
the point of view of Shreider, these problems are
related to the informatics as computer and
information science specific problems that occur
where there are the problems of information
representation of knowledge and the creative
reconstruction of knowledge as a result of user
efforts [9, p. 51].
Thus, in the documents of the 7th Framework
Programme of the European Union the need to
develop the theoretical foundations of development
of the next generation ICT is stated taking into
account the following conditions and limitations:
(1) The local generation of new knowledge
parts, their integration, and computer representation
of new knowledge in the dynamics of their
formation.
(2) The global use of systems of representation
and storage of new knowledge taking the context
and the time evolution of [computer] systems into
account.
(3) The evolution of the semantics (of the
forms and structures of representation of human
knowledge) in time.
Let us formulate a series of questions in order to
detail the listed circumstances of the generation of
new knowledge. These questions need to be
answered one way or another in the process of
creating the theoretical foundations of computer and
information science. Answers to these questions are
necessary for the comparative analysis of different
options for their construction.
First, do the proposed theoretical foundations
allow for the categorization of mental knowledge by
the degree of conventionality? Is there a category of
personal mental knowledge that is not agreed with
anyone by their author? If the answer is positive, as
a result of what processes are personal
uncoordinated mental human knowledge converted
into collective (agreed) and conventional
knowledge?
Second, are the origins and purposes of
generating new and evolving existing knowledge
systems determined explicitly?
Third, is it possible to influence the processes of
generation and evolution of systems of knowledge
(to make them purposeful)?
Fourth, do the proposed theoretical foundations
allow for the division of human mental knowledge
into implicit (not expressed explicitly) and explicit
knowledge?
All four of these questions are crucial for the
description of the theoretical foundations of
developing the next generation ICT in particular
and the paradigm of computer and information
science in general.
Oriented Basic Research
In March 2011, the Russian Foundation for Basic
Research (RFBR) held a competition of oriented
basic research on 23 cross-disciplinary themes
including the theme Fundamentals of Convergent
Technologies [28]. For all 23 subjects 1137
applications were received, of which 468 received
grants for projects. The theme Fundamentals of
Convergent Technologies received a little more
than 40 applications of which almost half received
grants for projects including the following [29, 30]:
(1) Research and development of
neuromorphic means and complex
anthropomorphic technical systems (models of
perception and accumulation of knowledge about
the medium and behavior by learning in real
time).
(2) A study of rhythmic codes of mental
activity and the creation of human cognitive space
and a highlevel brain-computer interface on this
basis (development of the technology determining
the type of mental action by the
electroencephalogram, the distribution of brain
rhythms for certain types of thinking: spatial,
imaginative, verbal logic, and mixed forms,
quantitative estimation of the distance between
the different types of thinking with the definition
of their coordinates on a model of the cognitive
space).
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(3) Cognitive bases of the converged voice
recognition technology (the construction of a
training set of patterns for speech recognition
technology).
The names and brief abstracts make it possible
to get a first glimpse of the problems of these
projects on the theme Fundamentals of
Convergent Technologies. They concern the
complementarity of bio-, neuro-, and cognitive
technologies and their integration with the ICT. As
part of the RFBR competition the convergence of
technologies of different types is positioned as a
factor in the formation of a new technological
basis of civilization based on the reproduction of
systems and processes of nature in the form of
technical systems and processes [2830], including
those in the form of computer and information sys-
tems and technologies.
In the 21st century, the convergence of
technologies of different types is positioned as the
current research problem. In particular, in the
annual programming documents titled NSF
Investments and Strategic Goals of the National
Science Foundation (NSF) of the USA the idea of
convergence of technologies was introduced in
2003. It is important to note that one of the priority
areas of research funded by the NSF is titled
Computer and Information Science and
Engineering [31].
Research on the convergence of technologies is
aimed at solving major social problems, which is
reflected in the titles of the research programs,
projects, research activities, and deliverables.
Thus, the 2003 report by the NSF project no. CTS-
0128860 prepared by leading US experts on the
subject was called Converging Technologies for
Improving Human Performance: Nanotechnology,
Biotechnology, Information Technology, and
Cognitive Science [32] and the analytical report
prepared in 2004 by leading experts of the
European Union was called Converging
Technologies: Shaping the Future of European
Societies. A Report from the High Level Expert
Group on Foresighting the New Technology Wave
[33].
The RFBR has funded basic research in the area
of the ICT integration with bio-, neuro-, and
cognitive technologies on a competitive basis since
2011. Next, the set of the last three types of
technologies will be briefly denoted as cognitive
technologies. The development of the
fundamentals of their integration with the ICT is
the current problem. As already noted, if this topic
is included in the subject area of computer and
information science, it will have a significant
impact on the construction of the theoretical
foundations of this science.
GOAL-ORIENTED GENERATION
OF KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS
Studies of the generation of new knowledge are
traditionally referred to the economy in which
qualitative models of different brainstorming
technologies have been used [3440]. The need for
quantitative models and functional symbiosis of
humans and computer systems for the benefit of
purposeful generation of new knowledge became
the factors that made the computer and information
component dominant in this research.
The role and importance of this component is
discussed by invited experts in the preparation of
the 7th Framework Program of the European Union
at the seminar Knowledge Anywhere Anytime: The
Social Life of Knowledge. This seminar was held
on April 2930, 2004 in Brussels [15]. Its
proceedings have been used in the formation of the
ICT work program of the 7th Framework Program
[1214].
In these materials, it is noted that the study of the
processes and the creation of the methods and
models of the formation of new and the
development of existing methods and models for
structuring and presenting knowledge are current
issues in the 21st century. Participants identified the
following four topical areas of research [15].
1. The formation of a scientific understanding
of how knowledge is presented. How this process
and its results are affected by joint action. How
conventional knowledge is formed. One of the
objectives of this direction is to create methods
and tools for describing the differences in personal
understanding of the same text, graphics, images,
charts, etc. by the participants of a joint activity.
2. The study of various forms of presentation of
the same concepts as mental knowledge parts. In
addition to forms of representation of
conventional and stable concepts, presentation of
personal and collective (agreed) concepts is also
the subject of study. As part of this trend it is
expected to study of the formation of
conventional concepts on the basis of personal
and collective concepts.
3. The creation of the next generation
intelligent information systems to provide
semantic interoperability in the collaboration of
users of these systems.
In the third direction, in addition to the creation
of methods and tools to support the semantic
interoperability in intelligent information systems, it
is planned to explore the issues of identification
and analysis of the stages of generation and
evolution of knowledge presented in the form of
classification systems, dictionaries, thesauri,
ontologies, and other models of structuring and
presenting knowledge. It is not assumed that users
will own the agreed system of terms and a com-
mon understanding of the principles of structuring
and presenting knowledge in advance.
The degree of novelty of intelligent systems
that support the processes of identifying and
analysis of the stages of generation and evolution
of new knowledge is proposed to be estimated by
comparing them with traditional knowledge
management systems (KMS) based on the
hypothesis of the stability of a persons mental
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knowledge [41]. According to this hypothesis,
in the process of creating and applying KMS, the
time evolution of mental knowledge presented in
the KMS can be ignored.
4. The study of fundamental features and tools
of influence on the processes of the generation of
new or the evolution of existing systems of
knowledge in the course of joint work of teams of
specialists. The most pressing questions of this
research area relate to spatial-distributed teams of
experts whose joint activities are provided by
network technologies. In the case of solving
problems of targeted generation of mental
knowledge it is assumed that the situation of its
incompleteness occurs. This incompleteness is
specified and the group of experts is tasked with
reducing the degree of lacunarity of existing
knowledge systems.
As part of this area it is planned to investigate
the kinds of advanced ICT and the extent to
which they can influence the processes of the
formation of new knowledge that meet socially
relevant needs that is necessary to obtain the
anticipated results. According to the experts
invited to the seminar Knowledge Anywhere
Anytime: The Social Life of Knowledge, the
ability to influence these processes is a
characteristic feature of a society based on
knowledge.
This list of the four areas of research suggests
that the participants of this workshop give ICT a
key role in solving the problems of the
formation of new and evolvement of existing
knowledge systems. However, they significantly
expanded the domain of knowledge
representation. This expansion was mainly due
to issues of new knowledge generation and the
impact of the ICT on the generation and evolution
of knowledge systems. The analysis of the
contents of this workshop suggests that the
subject area outlined by invited experts includes
the traditional tasks of knowledge representation
in addition to the following three topical areas of
research [15]:
(1) The generation and computer representation
in a digital electronic medium
1
of personal and
agreed concepts as mental knowledge parts
generated by spatially distributed teams of
specialists.
(2) The analysis and evaluation of the degree of
relevance of systems of concepts formed by
social, economic, technological, and other public
needs that (concepts) are formed to meet them
(needs).
(3) The targeted influence by means of the ICT
and cognitive technologies on the generation and
evolution of systems of formed concepts that are
necessary to meet the public needs.

1
In accordance with GOST R 52292-2004, an electronic medium
is an medium of technical equipment (hardware) which operates
on the basis of the laws of physics and information technology
used in the processing, storage, and transmission of data. In this
paper, a digital electronic medium means the digital technology
devices (digital hardware) of the electronic medium.

In the first line of research I obtained the
solutions to two problems:
(1) A conceptual indexing of geoimages as
forms of mental representations of personal
specialist knowledge of geo objects [42].
(2) The generation of new systems of expert
knowledge created by spatially distributed teams
of specialists to ensure the monitoring of target-
oriented activities [18, 43].
In the process of solving these problems quantita-
tive models of processes of generation and methods of
computer coding of personal and agreed concepts as
structural elements of expert systems have been
developed. The theoretical foundations for the
development of these models were created within
the approaches of Gorn and Shreider to the
integration of computer and information sciences.
The theoretical foundations of integration include
the division of the subject area of computer and
information science to media, the use of two classes
of concepts and terms (one- and two-nature), the
distribution of the one-nature terms by media and
two-nature terms by boundaries between media, and
the use of two interrelated stages of representation
of concepts in the digital electronic medium in the
form of computer code [4244].
Let us give a brief description of the foregoing
foundations of integration of computer and
information sciences using the system of terms from
[45]. This system of terms includes two main classes
of concepts and terms, i.e., one-nature (such as
knowledge, sign information, digital information,
digital data, and computer codes) and two-nature
(semiotic signs, formcodes, and semcodes). At the
beginning of the process of creating the theoretical
foundations the following four media (the number
was then increased) and the corresponding one-
nature terms were addressed
(1) The mental medium of human knowledge,
which includes explicit and implicit knowledge.
(2) The socio-information (or social and
communication) medium, which includes forms
of presentation of knowledge that are separate
from human sensory-perceived forms (sign
information).
(3) The material medium of objects and
phenomena based on the interpretation of which
new concepts of human knowledge are generated.
(4) The digital electronic medium, which
includes digital information, digital data,
computer codes of concepts, and forms of
presentation of the explicit knowledge.
Thus, any one-nature concept or t erm was
related to only one of these four media. Using
the above-mentioned figure of speech of Shreider [9,
p. 5051], we can say that the boundaries between
126 ZATSMAN
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Fig. 1. Two media, the planes of content and expression, and signs.



these media those are of the abyss that
separates information, knowledge, and other one-
nature terms.

After the distribution of one-nature terms by
media, two successive stages of knowledge
representation in the digital electronic medium in
the form of computer code were described. The
first stage of knowledge representation refers to
the boundary between the mental and social and
communication media. Semiotic signs, as concepts
that are two-nature, belong to this particular
boundary on which the associative correlation of
concepts and forms of their presentation using
semiotic signs is carried out
2
.

Figure 1 illustrates a situation where in the
system of human knowledge several planes of
content can be selected according to the number of
languages or sign systems that a person knows and
uses to represent the knowledge in the detached
form. In the used system of terms such forms are
by definition sign information. Figure 1 shows two
content planes in the mental

2
Here we use the dyadic model of the sign.

medium (designated as A and B) corresponding
to two different sign systems.

For example, in order to describe the same
knowledge the Russian language (the content plane
A) and English (the content plane B) can be used.
Then each of these content planes derived from the
division of the same knowledge system will
correspond to its own content plane in the social
and communication medium. Each plane of the
expressions in Fig. 1 is indicated by two books (two
books in Russian and their translations into
English). The boundary between the mental and
social communication media is indicated by a
dashed line. At this boundary associative links are
set between concepts of mental knowledge and texts
as detached forms of representation of concepts in
social and communication medium.

The second stage of presentation of concepts as
mental knowledge parts refers to the border
between social communication and digital
electronic media (Fig. 2).

At this boundary tables of computer character
encoding are used in order to represent texts in the

Sign
system B
Sign
system A
Mental
medium
Socio-
information
medium
Concept
A-Sign
Sign-
form
Concepts
represented
by sign
system B
Concept

Concept
Concept
Concept
Concept
Concept
Knowledge
system

Content plane of
sign system
Concept
B-Sign
Sign-
form
Expression plane
of sign system
Content plane of
sign system B
Expression plane
of sign system B
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Fig. 2. Two interfaces and the two-stage presentation of concepts in the form of digital codes.



digital electronic medium. These tables belong
to the boundary between the media (tables of
computer coding are conventionally designated by
the computer in Fig. 2). For verbalized knowledge
the successive use of language sign systems in the
process of text generation at first followed by
tables of computer coding is the traditional
method of representing concepts in the digital
electronic medium.
Figure 2 illustrates a situation where texts as
verbal forms of representation of knowledge are
assigned to the codes of their constituent
characters. It is important to note that the process
of the integration of information science with
computer science and the formation of a single
subject area resulted in the creation of three
instead of two boundaries between:
(1) The mental medium of human knowledge
and the social and communication medium (in
Fig. 2 this is designated as interface N 1).
(2) The social and communication medium
and digital electronic medium (in Fig. 2 this is
designated as interface N 2).

(3) The mental medium of human knowledge and
the digital electronic medium (this boundary is not
shown in Fig. 2).

The determination of two-nature terms on the
third boundary, which are called semcodes in this
system of terms, made it possible to propose
methods of computer coding of the concepts that
have no verbal forms of representation or have a
number of different forms of representation due to
the asymmetry of sign systems [45].

Thus, we solved these two problems in the
process of the use and development of the
approaches of Gorn and Shreider to the definition of
computer and information science as a unified area
of knowledge. Note that in the solution to the first
problem (conceptual indexing of geoimages) all four
media were used, while in the solution of the second
problem (generation of systems of expert
knowledge) only three of the four media were used.
However, this does not mean that just these four
media will always be enough for the description of
the subject area of computer and information
science.
Sign system
Interface N 1
concepts -
texts
Mental
medium
Digital
medium
Socio-information
medium
Codes
Texts
Computer digital information and data storage system
Concept
Concept
Codes Codes
Concept
Sign N
Sign-
form
...
...
...
Expression plane of
sign system
Interface N 2
texts
codes
Knowledge
system
Partitioning of
knowledge system
by sign system A
Concept
Sign 1
Sign-
form
Content plane of
sign system
Codes Codes
Form-
code
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For example, in the problems of neuroinformatics
it is necessary to include into consideration the
totality of the objects of the other four media, i.e.,
mental, social and communication, digital and
electronic, and neurophysiological [46]
(neurobiological [47]). Accordingly, in general, the
objects of study of the subject area of
neuroinformatics can belong to the four media. In
addition, during the study, concepts can be used that
belong to the following six boundaries that lie
between
(1) Mental medium of human knowledge and
social communication medium.
(2) Social-communication and digital
electronic media.
(3) Mental and digital electronic media.
(4) Neurophysiological and social
communication media.
(5) Neurophysiological and digital
electronic media.
(6) Mental and neurophysiological media.
For the first boundary a traditional example of
such concepts is semiotic signs. For the second and
third boundaries similar concepts, i.e., formcode and
semcode, were defined in [45]. Currently the
pressing issue is how to define similar two-nature
terms for the remaining three boundaries.
If in the problems of neuroinformatics it is neces-
sary to further consider the medium of material
objects and phenomena (external to the person), then
the average number of media of its subject area
increases to five. Currently, there is no general
description of the division of the domain of
computer and information science into media taking
into account its other sectoral components, i.e.,
geoinformatics, cognitive informatics,
bioinformatics, etc. This does not make it possible to
determine the total number of media that covers the
subject area of computer and information science.
However, if we add the analog electronic medium
reviewed in [45] to the referred five media, it can be
assumed that the total number of its media will be
not less than six.

CONCLUSIONS
The fundamental reconsideration of the system of
theoretical, applied, methodological, and
technological principles, approaches, and concepts
used today in the field of ICT and its integration
with cognitive techniques [3133] has become a key
prerequisite for the development of computer and
information science as a field of general scientific
knowledge. At present, the need to build its
theoretical foundations as a fundamental science is
recognized and has been made explicit (scientific,
technological, and educational positions) [1, 1015,
26]. The earliest approaches to the description of
computer and information science were proposed by
Gorn and Shreider. We have proposed a possible
approach to the construction of its theoretical bases
as the development of their ideas [18, 4245].

The proposed approach includes the division of
the subject area of computer and information
science into media, the use of two classes of
concepts and terms (one- and two-nature),
distribution of one-nature terms between media
and distribution of two-nature terms by
boundaries between media, and the use of two
interrelated stages of representation of concepts in
digital electronic medium in the form of
computer code.

In the proposed approach one-nature terms can
to belong to at least six different media, i.e., men-
tal, social communication, digital electronic,
analog electronic, neurophysiological
(neurobiological), and the medium of material
objects and phenomena external to the person.
The domains of other areas of knowledge rarely
include such a variety of media and, accordingly,
a variety of natures of study objects. The only
exception is semiotics. In the Frege semiotic tri-
angle, denotation is one of its vertices and can be
of any nature (mental, social communication,
digital electronic, neurophysiological, etc.).

If the task of semiotics is the study of signs
and sign systems used in all fields of knowledge,
but only on one boundary between the mental and
social communication media, then the task of
computer and information science is to create the
theoretical foundations of the development of ICT
in all areas of knowledge and wide range of
practical activities. In this case, the next
generation ICT should be able to cover five or
more media, as well as a lot of borders between
them.

The study of such a broad range of one- and
two-nature notions can indicate the special role of
computer and information science in the system
of scientific knowledge. On the one hand, it is
difficult to determine the place of this area of
knowledge within the classical paradigm of two
cultures, the natural sciences and humanities
[48]. On the other hand, the variety of media and
natures of the objects of study makes it possible
to develop a hypothesis about the formation of
computer and information science as a third
culture [49] that contributes to the fundamental
reconsideration and harmonization of
relationships of natural sciences and humanities.

The proposed development of the ideas of
Gorn and Shreider is one of the possible variants
of the theoretical foundations of computer and
information science. Of course, other options can
be proposed and their bases can be described. The
development and comparative analysis of
different variants of the theoretical foundations
are the present stage of the development of
computer and information science as a field of
general scientific knowledge and perhaps as a
third culture.
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Translated by O. Pismenov





















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