Logic as Information Compression by Multiple Alignment, Unification and Search

This article considers the proposal that logic may usefully be understood as information compression by multiple alignment, with `unification' and `search', where `multiple alignment' has a meaning which is close to its meaning in bio-informatics, `unification' means a simple merging of matching patterns, and `search' has its normal meaning in the context of computing. A motivation for developing these ideas, not considered in this article, is the possible integration of concepts in logic with other concepts in computing including learning, pattern recognition, information retrieval and others. A theme throughout this article is that these concepts may model `standard' forms of logic exemplified by propositional logic, first order logic and related ideas but they also offer the possibility of some rationalisation and simplification of concepts in logic. The way in which basic concepts in logic (AND, OR, NOT etc.) may be modelled in the proposed framework is discussed and some possible ..