[Fis] [External Email] Re: defining information

Fri Mar 6 00:01:02 CET 2020

Dear Colleagues

Wittgenstein (Investigations 65-71) suggests that some concepts encompass phenomena that have no single feature in common. 
However it is possible to recognise the existence of some form of likeliness.
He uses the term "family resemblances" to refer to this.
He gives the example of “games”. It is not possible to provide a definition of game that fits all sorts of games we can find.

It is my view that the same happens with information.
There is a wide range of phenomenon where we recognise features that leads us to call it “information".
However, it is not possible to provide one single definition that adequately describes all those phenomena.

I gave up looking for an unifying definition of information.
As soon I switch to another context (for example, moving from the context of organisational work to  the human mind or to the cell) the key features are different.

Regards,

João

====================================
Joao Alvaro Carvalho
Professor 

Departamento de Sistemas de Informação   
Escola de Engenharia
Universidade do Minho

Alameda da Universidade
4804-533 Guimaraes, Portugal                
Tel:   + 351 253 510 304/319
Fax:  + 351 253 510 300

http://tsiuminho.dsi.uminho.pt/
====================================

> On 5 Mar 2020, at 20:11, Stanley N Salthe <ssalthe en binghamton.edu> wrote:
> 
> Moises -- I have tried other definitions of information. None are completely satisfactory. In '08 I suggested that information is
> any constraint on entropy production,
> 
> STAN
> 
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2020 at 6:26 PM Moisés André Nisenbaum <moises.nisenbaum en ifrj.edu.br <mailto:moises.nisenbaum en ifrj.edu.br>> wrote:
> Hi, Stan.
> Curiosity: today, would you change this definition? If so, that's because you change your mind or because Information have changed?
> 
> Cheers.
> Moisés
> 
> Em qua., 4 de mar. de 2020 às 17:27, Stanley N Salthe <ssalthe en binghamton.edu <mailto:ssalthe en binghamton.edu>> escreveu:
> Here is my 1993 definition of Information:
> 
> Here is my 1993 definition of information:
> 
> Information is a significant arrangement that could have been different without any different expenditure of energy. Because it cannot be specified by natural laws, there is always an element of surprise in information. 
> 
> Dretske (1981) Knowledge and the Flow of Information (MIT Press) has argued that materially it is the most highly specified digital content an analog sign could have, thus stating a principle of maximum information capacity per sign with respect to the meaning of information. Information implies interpretation; potential information stored elsewhere than where an observer could tap it is like the unavailable energy of heat. Both are observer related. 
> 
> STAN  
> 
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> -- 
> Moisés André Nisenbaum
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> Instituto Federal do Rio de Janeiro - IFRJ
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