[Fis] Life goes on
Pedro C. Marijuan
pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
Mon Oct 8 21:28:47 CEST 2018
Dear FISers,
Many thanks for the warm, friendly responses. It was a pity, but I could
do nothing to preserve all the old subscribers, as there was no way to
produce a whole list of subscribers (the list software only produced a
separate listing for each initial letter, but very dirty full of strange
codes); unfortunately there is no way to recuperate them. What we can
do instead is that each one may compile a few addresses of interesting
parties who can be invited, and then I can send them an automatic
invitation very easily (in group). Afterwords each one has to confirm.
Otherwise in this link [
http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis ] anyone can
subscribe by him/herself. Any ideas for the regrowth will be very
welcome both online and offline. Who knows... perhaps this is an
opportunity to regrow within a more scholarly basis.
Continuing with narratives, two Nobel Prize in economics, George Akerlof
and Robert Shiller have been consistently writing on the role of
"stories" (narratives) as the necessary complement of the rational agent
theories. The whispers from the "monkeys on our shoulders" [sic] very
often become louder and more commanding than the rational discourse. in
several disciplines, there is a reflection to make on narratives as the
natural form of social communication. I have reworded the 10 principles
of information (to appear in Gordana & Burgin's compilation from the
2017 IS4SI Meeting). Now the 9th principle says: "Narratives emerge as
encapsulated forms of human communication, underlying the intricacies of
social relationships, of economic organization, and the very structures
of political power." The central question: How do narratives relate to
the advancement of our own life cycles? It is here that Booker, as I
mentioned the last day, gives a Jungian response, quite articulated, but
probably insufficient. The conjunction of social psychology (eg,
Kahneman) and evolutionary psychology (Henrich, Laland) could provide a
great translation of that highly significant point of view. Enter now
the late book of Damasio (2018), pronouncing a rotund response: "we are
cellular", and subsequently we cannot help but reformulating the very
principles of the "cellular way of life" in all the new evolved
instances of collective life. That means that finally we are approaching
the cellular life cycle and its systematic signaling "stories" in the
relationship with the environment. The living cell is the foundational
information "unit". The source of meaning.
if the above series of explanatory pathways are well concatenated, say
via a global research project, the core of information science would be
finally articulated. Information physics, Shannon's info etc. are
relatively well in their own tracks. It is the rest of the field that
has not yielded to a consistent unifying "story" yet. By the way,
Akerlof's 2001 Nobel was for "asymmetric information".
All the best!
--Pedro
PS. Some people here may have institutional leverage. Why we do not
think on applying for a research project humanities/natural science?
El 07/10/2018 a las 19:45, Moisés André Nisenbaum escribió:
> Wonderful to hear you FISers again :-)
> I agree that it is an excellent and interesting theme.
>
> Thank you Pedro!
>
> Kind regards.
>
> Abraços a todos!
> Moisés
>
>
> Moisés André Nisenbaum
> Enviado do celular.
>
> Em sex, 5 de out de 2018 14:26, Pedro C. Marijuan
> <pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es <mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es>> escreveu:
>
> Dear FIS Colleagues,
>
> Around the beginnings of the new course, the University of
> Zaragoza released the FIS list, after the authentication process
> mandated by an European Directive on Data Protection. The outcome
> has been rather tough, from around 350 we have been decimated to
> just 62. Provided that the most active participants have renewed,
> we wouldn't see much changes, although not very probably. The pity
> now is the diminished broadcast of the discussions, for many of
> the passive recipients were more or less listening (and the
> warning message in Spanish didn't help at all for their awareness
> of the renewal process).
>
> In any case, life goes on. There is a ISIS and FIS Conference next
> year (in the US, chaired by Terry Deacon). In the future list
> discussions we should keep this in mind and progressively put the
> focus on it. The present "slimming cure" of the list might also be
> a good occasion to reflect on its trajectory and aims. Are we
> fulfilling the foundational goals? Not so much yet... Well, from
> my part, I have a novel theme that I consider of interest to this
> basic discussion. Several readings of mine during this year have
> neatly converged on the power of "narratives" in our human
> communication. From economics, to political science, to
> communication studies, to Media both traditional and new, and
> essentially in literature and oral traditions... In particular the
> approach by Christopher Booker (2004, 2017) makes clear the
> centrality of storytelling in our whole lives. He is a
> controversial figure, but this book ("The Seven Basic Plots: Why
> We Tell Stories") is a master work. My only personal caveat is the
> Jungian framework the author utilizes--is it necessary? I do not
> think so. Translating his ideas to common multidisciplinary
> language, pertaining both to natural science and humanities, would
> make for a great discussion. Right in the center. My feeling is
> that he has achieved for human communication what I have tried
> during recent years for cellular communication.
>
> And that's all! Little by little am getting used to my new life
> "far from the madding crowd" of local Faculty.
>
> Friendly regards to all,
>
> --Pedro
>
> -------------------------------------------------
> Pedro C. Marijuán
> Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
>
> pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es <mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es>
> http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
> -------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
--
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
-------------------------------------------------
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