[Fis] Five Clouds over Fundamental Information Science.

[Karl Javorszky]

Coming Out (2024 12 15)



Dear Learned Friends,



So many different aspects of how to define information (and whether we are
able and permitted to define information), that one more aspect will not
worsen much the general disorientation.

I’d like to share with you 3 portraits, of people who, in my prediction,
will be revered and acclaimed much more 200 years hence than we would have
thought.

Then, I shall give my two pennies on how to proceed with FIS.



   1. *Three Portraits*


   1. Bluma Zeigarnik

Freud has introduced the subjective side of epistemology to the
conversations among polite people in bourgeois salons. He envisioned a
self-regulating system, of which the failures we see if a central
part-system cannot compromise or otherwise balance the requirements posed
by a conflict between two different subsystems. He pointed out the
importance of treating children well, because pedagogic errors trail a long
and strong tail of consequences. He gave us the first concepts about
feedback loops within the nervous system of humans. The terminus ‘Lust’
(animal pleasure) can be used as a unit of goal, direction, and amount
towards maintaining a quasi-stable arrangement within the whole. That what
the CNS optimizes the production of is called lust. Zeigarnik’s experiments
have shown that probands have a tendency to finish a task already begun.
There is a reward for crossing the t-s and dotting the i-s, for fulfilling
a job to the required end, for finishing and closing a separate task.

While lust in the sense of Freud includes interaction with the outside
world, (breathing, eating, mating, etc.), an objective something from the
outside solving a present mis-allocation (bite of bread in case of hunger,
a few words in case of social needs, etc), Zeigarnik has shown the
existence of *lust as such *being produced within the system. She will be
remembered as the first person to produce a synthetic (logical), pure form
of lust, that is a creation of the system itself and not a necessary
addition to the system from the outside.

The Zeigarnik-lust comes from fulfilling a *self-set *goal. (The probands
were free to stop the routine tasks they were charged with while ostensibly
waiting; the probands *insisted *on finishing the last few of the subtasks
within an organizational unit (paragraph, chapter, page)).

The proband sets a goal of expectation by intending to solve e.g. the tasks
on a page. His resolve is the *expectation,* towards which he is motivated
to bring his *observed *output to agree to. Both marks are within proband’s
head.

If one had any ideas about building a thinking machine, one should observe
the fact that there is clinical, empirical evidence that the process of
making observations and expectation match each other causes (creates,
generates, is equivalent with) a logical form of endorphine. Our homunculus
is self-satisfying, by setting for itself some goals and then achieving
these goals, just for the sake of it. This means that the homunculus uses
information as a sustenance material. Making ∆ *obs, exp = inf **→ 0, *the
homunculus eats information. No more ∆ *obs, exp *there, homunculus is
smiling. The proof of information as a material of (self-)motivation has
been delivered by Zeigarnik, who is much less recognized yet as it would be
fair.

   2. Neil Sloane

The Welshman is a distinguished mathematician of his own standing, yet the
genius of his insight, that someone needs to do the humble jobs too, so
that the pompous can move forward, propels him miles in advance of the
legions of good mathematicians. Sloane has started collecting integer
sequences, because one needs a catalog for the integer sequences one uses.
His own anthology grew over 30 years so much useful, that in 1996 he
publicized it under the name of Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.

What the invention of double ledgers for accounting and business, that the
invention of OEIS for the body of sciences. If you dig down in
epistemology, you will find that if you want to distinguish between two
concepts, you need a collection of symbols the meaning of is already agreed
on, relative to which neutral fact the differences between the two disputed
will become evident. The sequence of your words is as important as the form
of the words. The sequence remaining eternal (all entries in OEIS have the
form *a(n), n: 0, 1, 2, …*), the different meanings become evident. The
cultural impact of the OEIS has not been recognized yet. It is the
collection of *names as such.*

   3. Pedro C Marijuán

We all know Pedro. For me personally, the level of how courteously
communicating, between a Zaragoza professor of technology and a Vienna
psychologist, can simply not be topped. Common stretches in our histories
gave the world the concept of etiquette. It is always a delight to exchange
with Pedro.

The as of yet unrecognized contribution to culture created by Pedro is this
here company of charming and collaborative Learned Friends. It may be at
times strenuous for some of us to accept that one or other of the Learned
Friends will not deviate from their heretic and errant ways. Like a Zen
master, Pedro keeps his discretion and encourages each of us to speak their
mind. What we experience here is *communication as such. *Pedro’s
resistance to prejudiced clichés is remarkable.



   2. *To the Ordre du jour*


   1. Catalog of Definitions of Information

Gordana mentions en passant that the definition of information is a
recurrent subject in FIS. But, pray, *what else *can be a raison d’etre of
a Club of Learned Friends who meet under diverse readings of F, I and S,
but in any way of putting it, the I refers to Information.

Ruminating animals can extract nutrients from pre-digested material. No one
who qualifies as a Learned Friend is innocent of previous influences on
what is, and why not something else, information. We are all already pretty
pre-influenced on this subject.

Had we the youth, circumstances and inner serenity of Neil Sloane of then,
we would set up an Online Encyclopedia of Definitions of Information.

   2. How to tell your child that Santa Claus was his Daddy in a mask

There is a moment of  disillusionment when one understands the nuts and
bolts of something previously thought to be a product of Thor or Poseidon.
We still have that magic-mythic thinking of normal children attached like
rests of eggshells to our grown-up thinking apparatus. Information is such
a subject. From diplomatic double-speak, via insinuations and empathy to
dreams, phantasies, imaginations, concepts, constructs, definitions and
names to contexts and meaning, there is a library worth of dissertations
about the *connotations *of the term information.

What this honorable Society of Learned Friends dances around is the
one-and-only real certified approved true official listed and published as
norm *denotation *of the word. Surface structures (chair, Sessel, chaise)
abound, deep structures they refer to (are descendants of) are, by
definition, few.

The only frame of reference that is true, accepted, etc., is the system of
natural numbers. They are public and can be generated at will by anyone,
anytime, anywhere. If we succeed in hooking a definition unto, into, in
this system of references, then that definition is as well defined as it
can get, like a sequence in OEIS.

Well, this here FIS has in the course of about 30 years brought up a
proposition for a construct that serves well for the purposes of a
denotation. One cannot sit on a Gestalt of a multilingual furniture. One
cannot use the sentence *inf = **∆ n?, n! *for anything else but as a
conversation starter or stopper.

   3. Share the social consequences

It is one’s own decision how intensively one seeks social recognition. For
a few of the Learned Friends it may be a professional necessity to publish
something at times. If anyone in need of a nice publication would compile a
Dictionary of Current Definitions of Information, several interests would
be satisfied. Surely, members of this group would be willing to contribute
and participate.

There is an idea half-hanging about a blog explaining the mysteries one
would experience if one reordered 12 books and kept being awake and
attentive while doing so. It is ok, if one does not want oneself to play
the guitar, to listen to or watch YouTube videos on how to play the guitar.
If, however, one wants to understand how the guitar is built and what makes
accords, one will not gain from watching introductory videos, however well
these are made. If one wants to understand how order is *generated *it is
unavoidable that one clearly distinguishes between classes and types
of *objects
in transit* and that this again depends on the *properties vs places *of
things. To gain context for these ideas, the proband needs to actually,
physically experience what he will give a name to. Doing something creates
a mental space for the name of what one has done. Deictic definitions are
possible if there is a mental index finger active that points to a content
of perception or memory. The other direction is not functional. If you tell
the proband that he shall experience this and that, the proband will not
experience neither this nor that, but rather such impressions which are
associated with his interpretations of what you say.

Maybe the cultural-paradigm change will be called re-subjectification, and
the education of the biologic algorithms will follow the didactic for the
apprentices at Tokyo Metro. These have to touch their leg on having closed
a task. The intermixing of signals towards the brain, coming from sensory
organs vs coming as self-produced by the brain, seems to lower accident
rates by ensuring better functioning of the attention. *(I have placed
object q on place w. Touch the leg. Next, object r goes to place f. I have
placed object r on place f. Touch the leg. Next, object …)*

A well-written and useful handbook on how to count biologic processes would
include a few currently existing definitions of connotations of information
and show the way to arrive at the denotation of the concept. Quite a few
names in the authors list.


We do have something to tell the world and we do have the competence to
tell it. The next question is self-legitimation, and then marketing. Great
expectations!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listas.unizar.es/pipermail/fis/attachments/20241216/bdd42817/attachment-0001.html>