Infoautopoiesis and Undecidability:

The Limits of Artifact-Making

Abstract

Artifact-making is central to human existence. The mid-twentieth century inaugurated what is popularly referred to as the 'Information Age', coinciding with the introduction of digital computers. The extraordinary growth of computer technology and the burgeoning of AI systems has triggered an active debate about the potential capabilities and limits of these supposed living creations, which now include extraordinary claims of imminent AI consciousness. A productive focus on this contentious issue requires an understanding of the exact characteristics of information in living systems, how these pertain to our human artifacts,  and, correspondingly, to the limits of our artifact-making ability. The critical foundation of a correct assessment must be centered within the living context of an organism in its environment and how organisms recognize sensorial signals, so as to internally analyze and create information. That discussion directly relates to the distinctions between syntactic and semantic information and their dynamic interrelationship. Information assessment in the living frame is a recursive process, forming a continuously self-reinforcing sensation-information-action cycle that serves as the basis for the infoautopoietic self-production of information by living beings. Examining these processes reveals inherent limits to human artifact-making, governed by principles of uncomputability and undecidability inherent to the living information cycle.