[Fis] Why is FIS important?

[Pedro C. Marijuan]

Dear Jerry and FIS Colleagues,

A very succinct response: differentiating the animate of the inanimate 
is one of the earliest cognitive "instincts", already present in babies 
of few months old--even though they are not great mathematicians yet! If 
we the grown up proceed to reverse engineering these two kinds of 
systems, we observe taking the simplest cases of the former (bacteria) 
an amazing diversity of combinatory processes in action:  genes, RNAs, 
ribosomes, transcription factors, signal exchange, signal processing... 
you may apply the Shannon ruler in multitude of these instances but 
above all you need a full panoply of disciplines involved: microbiology, 
bioenergetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, bioinformatics, 
signaling sceince... I remember, years ago, it was estimated that more 
than 10,000 people were working on E. coli as their main field... Now, 
Jerry, the excellent paper you mention by Topol says --in my modest 
opinion-- that in order to do something similar concerning human health, 
you need plenty, plenty of biological & medical fields involved, and a 
special "dataism" of first class to be able to digest the mountain of 
data. I am rather skeptical about the final results of this new 
big-data-health approach. In my opinion it can be terribly dehumanizing, 
and terribly unjust as it is addressed to the supposed "superhealth" of 
that infamous 0.01 of the 1% super-rich.

Two questions I leave open: when two bacterial cells communicate (eg, 
via quorum signals) what is their frame of reference, the shared 
background to build the "meaning"?
Similarly, when we two communicate (any two people) via verbal 
exchanges, or better via body language, what is the frame of reference, 
the shared background?

Thanks for the other question (offline) on the new communication logic 
emerging from the signaling system of eukaryotic cells. Given that Karl 
and Joseph are following a highly interesting path --Is there a "natural 
pattern" of space-time dynamic variation?-- I prefer to leave it for 
another day.

Best regards--Pedro


El 13/11/2019 a las 3:52, Jerry LR Chandler escribió:
> List:
>
> Recently, Pedro asked about the difference between the inanimate and the animate.
>
> Given the orientation of many information scientists toward the infinite credibility of mathematics, I was rather surprised, one might even say stunned, by this concern.
>
> Later, Joseph asked about CS Peirce’s notion of information, presumably in relation to his personal constructive inferences about the the nature quantum theory with respect to the animate and the inanimate.
>
> The timely convergence of these two inquires prompt a bit of introspection about the meaning or the implications of FIS in a broader context, unconstrained by the Shannon “its and bits”
>
> A colleague pointed me toward the works of Eric J. Topol.  In addition to his books on application of theories of information in non-mathematical disciplines, his lucid writings are demonstrated at the following web address:
>
> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5714316/pdf/nihms900018.pdf
>
> Do these highly speculative but rationally justified assertions (in the Peircian sense of from its to titbits to bits?) relate to FIS?
> If so, what are the rational connections between our rational discussions and E J Topol’s rational expectations and his well-articulated conjectures?
>
> (This post is intentionally provocative.  Can I safely assume that few if anyone (except Pedro!) will have the courage to respond?)
>
> Cheers
>
> Jerry
>
>
> (E.W. FYI)
>
>
>
>
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-- 
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group

pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
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