[Fis] The 10 Principles
Loet Leydesdorff
loet at leydesdorff.net
Fri Sep 18 15:14:04 CEST 2020
Dear Pedro and colleagues,
So here there are those two points:
1. Information is distinction on an adjacent difference.
2. Information processes consist in organized action upon differences
collected onto structures, patterns, sequences, messages, or flows.
Here, the distinction term refers to the capabilities of the subject or
informational entity that is engaged in the exploration of events or
signals in its immediate environment.
Does this imply that the definition of information is subjective? Or at
least intentional?
“The distinction refers to ….” Is this distinction only a reference. Is
information always local since based on a distinction of an adjacent
difference? Why would a distinction from a non-adjacent difference not
provide information?
The subject extracts logical distinctions out from the differences in
the materiality of those events.
Can you, please, provide an example?
The subject works and therefore generates
entropy/information?
The guiding idea is that, by following that logic (in itself based on a
few principles), one can apply “multidimensional partitions” as formal
descriptors of the discrete messages or the signalling flows. And that
skeleton of partitions is what “receiving the information” preliminarily
implies along this restricted communication logics. It is about how the
informational entity may create streams of relationships associated to
the material differences in the impinging signalling flows or discrete
messages.
The informational entity (potentially a subject) may create streams of
relationship.
Do the relations contain information? Are non-relations (zeros)
included? Are these flows a dynamic extension of the static
distinctions?
The adjacent term refers to the physical contact to be achieved between
the signalling event and the subject, and the need by the latter of
counting with sensory elements or with excitatory surfaces to be
physically impinged upon by the incoming signals.
Why is this exclusively local? Information can be defined objective and
non-local. Is this a subjective choice of you? Is the focus on local and
observable biologistic?
In living cells, information arrives via particles, molecules, atoms,
photons, or phonons that impinge on specialized receptors. It is the
same in all sensory surfaces of nervous systems. Increasing the
adjacency, extending the territory covered by the communication
processes with the environment is a formidable drive of biological
evolution: cellular pili, flagella, cilia, arborisation of axons and
dendrites, the neuronal multiplicity of sensors and receptors,
specialized maps, sensing modalities, etc. By all means, adjacency is
increased to the maximum supported by the biological system.
This may be the case for biological evolution, but communication
technologies enable us to include non-adjacent distinctions.
We may notice something similar in human societies about the artifacts,
means of communication, and scientific-technological apparatuses that
transcend the immediate adjacency of subjects in the complex information
flows of contemporary societies. By transcending the limits of immediate
space-time adjacency, and creating channels that carry differences to
build ad hoc distinctions, subjects may perform a myriad of further
distinction extractions and cognitive operations (think of telescopes,
microscopes, telegraph, etc.). By the way, curiously "channel" in the
Shanonian scheme represents also that which brings information to the
adjacency of the receiver.
The commonality exhibits, in my opinion, the mathematical character.
Once one abstracts from materiality, a mathematical definition becomes
unavoidable. Only math (and logic) can be used across domains. Do you
have such a definition, equivalent to the Shannon H?
By the way: addenda to pont two for Krassimir: data result from the
measurement of an action (or of an aggregate of multiple actions, or
surrogates of actions).
Difficult to follow in my opinion. Best, Loet
PS Please, note that The Evolutionary Dynamics of Expectations:
Interactions among Codes in Inter-Human Communications,
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303264720301258#%21>
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104236>BioSystems 198 (2020),
104236 is now available as part of your special issue. Thank you for the
Editorship. L.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030599508>
<https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030599508>
<https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030599508> Loet Leydesdorff
Professor emeritus, University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)
Profile at https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ych9gNYAAAAJ
loet en leydesdorff.net <mailto:loet en leydesdorff.net>;
http://www.leydesdorff.net/
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7835-3098;
[shortly available at SpringerLink
<https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030599508>]
------ Original Message ------
From: "Pedro C. Marijuan" <pcmarijuan.iacs en aragon.es>
To: "fis" <fis en listas.unizar.es>
Sent: 9/15/2020 2:37:51 PM
Subject: [Fis] The 10 Principles
>Dear FIS Colleagues,
>
>As promised I bring a new version of the 10 info principles (IPs). Just
>the first two ones.
>
>Previously I briefly comment on Marcus. My impression is that,
>notwithstanding an attractive & suggestive couple of points, what he
>is crafting somehow reminds me the Peircean reinterpretation of Laws of
>Nature. Given that only Objects and Interactions --Os and Ss-- are
>considered, and this is done putting together into the same sac
>fermions, genes, agents, people, etc. the origins of meaning in the
>"animate" are automatically lost, unless we assume a
>pan-pysicalist-pan-psychist stance, I think. So I would have trouble
>with this point as such (one has to see the whole scheme and how "bio"
>or "neuro" are entered specifically). The B principle can be taken with
>less caveats, I think, and it looks bold and very direct although
>perhaps it is rather linked to the anthropocentric view & agency (like
>Yixin's views, at least in my opinion). Of course, I do not pretend to
>get the two beers, for in any case I prefer wine & tapas... once the
>rest of the points are seen.
>
>Then I return to my own IPs. I had the opportunity to discuss them in
>the Saturday Conference organized by our colleague Wukun plus Yixin and
>others. An interesting experience. As you have seen in Krassimir's and
>Marcin's messages, hopefully we will have a specific FIS participation
>in IS4SI virtual meeting... So here there are those two points:
>
>
>1. Information is distinction on an adjacent difference.
>
>2. Information processes consist in organized action upon differences
>collected onto structures, patterns, sequences, messages, or flows.
>
>Here, the distinction term refers to the capabilities of the subject or
>informational entity that is engaged in the exploration of events or
>signals in its immediate environment. The subject extracts logical
>distinctions out from the differences in the materiality of those
>events. A minimalist scheme of distinctional logic based on
>multidimensional partitions can be applied, as was discussed by this
>author (Marijuán et al., 1998). It is based on the logic of
>multidimensional partitions developed by Karl Javorsky, explaining how
>finally a consistent skeleton of logical “distinctions” may be obtained
>out from the elements composing the difference detected or interacted
>by the subject.
>
>The guiding idea is that, by following that logic (in itself based on a
>few principles), one can apply “multidimensional partitions” as formal
>descriptors of the discrete messages or the signalling flows. And that
>skeleton of partitions is what “receiving the information”
>preliminarily implies along this restricted communication logics. It is
>about how the informational entity may create streams of relationships
>associated to the material differences in the impinging signalling
>flows or discrete messages.
>The adjacent term refers to the physical contact to be achieved between
>the signalling event and the subject, and the need by the latter of
>counting with sensory elements or with excitatory surfaces to be
>physically impinged upon by the incoming signals. In living cells,
>information arrives via particles, molecules, atoms, photons, or
>phonons that impinge on specialized receptors. It is the same in all
>sensory surfaces of nervous systems. Increasing the adjacency,
>extending the territory covered by the communication processes with the
>environment is a formidable drive of biological evolution: cellular
>pili, flagella, cilia, arborisation of axons and dendrites, the
>neuronal multiplicity of sensors and receptors, specialized maps,
>sensing modalities, etc. By all means, adjacency is increased to the
>maximum supported by the biological system. We may notice something
>similar in human societies about the artifacts, means of communication,
>and scientific-technological apparatuses that transcend the immediate
>adjacency of subjects in the complex information flows of contemporary
>societies. By transcending the limits of immediate space-time
>adjacency, and creating channels that carry differences to build ad hoc
>distinctions, subjects may perform a myriad of further distinction
>extractions and cognitive operations (think of telescopes, microscopes,
>telegraph, etc.). By the way, curiously "channel" in the Shanonian
>scheme represents also that which brings information to the adjacency
>of the receiver.
>
>By the way: addenda to pont two for Krassimir: data result from the
>measurement of an action (or of an aggregate of multiple actions, or
>surrogates of actions).
>
>Best wishes to all
>
>--Pedro
>
>
>
>--
>-------------------------------------------------
>Pedro C. Marijuán
>Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
>
>pcmarijuan.iacs en aragon.eshttp://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
>-------------------------------------------------
>
><https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient>
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