[Fis] non-living objects COULD NOT “exchange information”

[Dai Griffiths]

On 24/03/17 18:24, Karl Javorszky wrote:

> 1) Let me second to the point Alex raises:
> machines, computers, do exchange information. It would be against 
> cultural conventions to say that the notification that the 
> refrigerator sends to your phone's app "to-do-list" of the content 
> "milk only 0.5 liter available" is not an information.
>
> The signals my car's pressure sensor sends to my dashboard, saying 
> "tire pressure front right wheel is critically low" is a clear case of 
> information, whether I read it or not.
>
This is a good point, and worthy of our attention. But in this case of 
'information', cultural conventions are tremendously confused and 
contradictory. I do not think that we will achieve a coherent theory of 
information without violating some of them.

I'd argue that a deep cultural convention, or perhaps human tendency, is 
a bias towards reification over the description of processes. Perhaps 
some of the tangles around 'information' are the result of trying to 
understand phenomena by means of the qualities of things, rather than 
elucidating the dynamics of a process? If so, any resolution will 
certainly be against cultural conventions.

Dai

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Professor David (Dai) Griffiths
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