[Fis] Information and Locality, on the Introduction

[Steven Ericsson-Zenith]

Dear Pedro,

(First, I suspect that there remains an issue with the FIS server.)

I agree with your rejection of the coda “and hence ultimately quantum” and my particular reason for this is that it effectively denies structuralism. It will become clear, I hope, in this discussion that for me structuralism is fundamental. IOW, the central role of structure cannot be ignored as is essentially the case for all our digital forms.

This necessarily leads me to a particular view of the unit value that differs from convention. For me, the unit value, 1, has what is normally considered a dimensionality that is added by the Cartesian system. So 1 is what is normally thought of as the radius of a sphere. Dimension then reduces at the intersection with further values, for example a circle exists at the intersection of two values and, finally, points are terminal, the intersection of such a circle with a third value. 

So this view provides the foundation for a very different mathematics that I claim is the necessary consequence of this type of thinking - whereas mathematical convention derives from human commerce.  The advantage is a natural constraint that avoids infinite dimensionality, introduced by the Cartesian system, greater than we perceive.

And, indeed, I do put together the Allostery and broad stimulated protein conformance of biophysical structure with metabolites of all kinds, both from the environment and internally, to the organism structure in the taking away of a signal. 

Indeed, this allosteric conformance, I argue as a part of my main line of research, requires us to consider a new physical feature of nature that denies the strong locality of the Bit, provides a role for sense (or “feeling”) in biophysical behavior, and solves the across structure coordination that has thwarted us in large-scale computational terms. 

I should hasten to add that this lack of locality too has nothing at all to do with quantum mechanics.

Regards,
Steven

--
    Dr. Steven Ericsson-Zenith, Los Gatos, California. +1-650-308-8611
    http://iase.info






> On Sep 18, 2015, at 4:11 AM, Pedro C. Marijuan <pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es> wrote:
> 
> Thanks Steven. I find it curious that you have referred  to biophysical/physical grounds to establish meaning and apprehension.  In the latter, it is rather unclear for me whether you put together in the same footing the taking away of a metabolite from the environment and the taking away of a signal (which is not really taken 'away'). For the living cell this difference is crystal clear, although very few people have worked on it --notoriously Gerhardt great paper on eukaryotic signaling paths (1999) and also some of my bioinfo works. In my view, this distinction is essential to draw a natural history of communication, and particularly to understand meaning. Locality, in the way you have started to introduce it, looks quite close to "embodiment": in what extent can one talk about  locality without endorsing some form of embodiment and of situatedness? As Landauer (1987) put, "information is always physical", which I agree, but not with the coda that often accompanies it : "and hence ultimately quantum".
> best--Pedro
>> From: Steven Ericsson-Zenith <steven at iase.us>
>> Subject: Information and Locality, on the Introduction
>> Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 09:54:52 -0700
>> To: Foundations of Information Science Information Science <fis at listas.unizar.es>
>> 
>> 
>> Dear List,
>> 
>> First a few clarifications on the definition of terms for my usage.
>> 
>> "Semantics" are the rules of transformation for syntax, per Carnap.
>> 
>> "Meaning" is the physical behavior that is the consequence of apprehension, where apprehension is a biophysical taking away from the world in an organism.
>> 
>> Strictly, "apprehension" begins with a sense that leads to a response. Depending on the type of organism, apprehension may involve a physical processing by the organism. This may result in a failure to manifest a response external to the organism.
>> 
>> I understand that this use of the term "meaning" differs from its ambiguous informal use. The reason for this rigor is to enable the discussion to be unified in the physical sciences.
>> 
>> Because many in this forum are familiar with the work of Charles Peirce, let me note that this is a stricter Pragmaticism. I intend to leave Charles Peirce's semiotic theory aside (except to acknowledge it here).
>> 
>> One of the reasons for the form of my introduction is to highlight the distinction between Communication and Information. We can ignore dance and other arts as communication for now and consider the arts solely as something in the environment to apprehend.
>> 
>> I do not intend to diminish the arts by this move. In fact, I will treat everything of the arts and sciences as of the environment.
>> 
>> One of the first criticisms to make of the standard presentation of Information Theory is the acknowledgment of the binary digit (bit) but the failure to observe the lack of locality in the mechanisms of the presentation. Of course, the reason for this is its pedagogical nature but it also reflects the dogma of modern thought and engineering.
>> 
>> It should be clear that the bit alone is local and that any organization of the bit what-so-ever, be it in the form of a word, a Turing machine tape, in some form on a disk drive or in a text book is, to some degree, lacking that locality. Indeed, this organization is entirely separate and, worse, arbitrary.
>> 
>> The statistical matters that we may consider have nothing at all to do with the bit.
>> 
>> More shortly...
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Steven
>> 
>> --------------------
>> Dr. Steven Ericsson-Zenith
>> Los Gatos, California. +1-650-308-8611
>> http://iase.info
>> --------------------
>> 
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>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -------------------------------------------------
> Pedro C. Marijuán
> Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
> Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
> Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
> Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta X
> 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
> Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
> pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
> http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
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