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<DIV>In a message dated 9/11/2015 8:15:48 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es writes:</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>Dear Steven and FIS colleagues,<BR><BR>Many thanks for this opening
text. What you are proposing about a pretty<BR>structured discussion looks a
good idea, although it will have to<BR>confront the usually anarchic
discussion style of FIS list! Two aspects<BR>of your initial text have caught
my attention (apart from those videos<BR>you recommend that I will watch along
the weekend).<BR><BR>First about the concerns of a generation earlier
(Shannon, Turing...)<BR>situating information in the intersection between
physical science and<BR>engineering. The towering influence of this line of
thought, both with<BR>positive and negative overtones, cannot be
overestimated. Most attempts<BR>to enlarge informational thought and to extend
it to life, economies,<BR>societies, etc. continue to be but a reformulation
of the former ideas<BR>with little added value. See one of the last creatures:
"Why Information<BR>Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies"
(2015), by Cesar<BR>Hidalgo (prof. at MIT).<BR><BR>In my opinion, the
extension of those classic ideas to life are very<BR>fertile from the
technological point of view, from the "theory of<BR>molecular machines" for
DNA-RNA-protein matching to genomic-proteomic<BR>and other omics' "big
data". But all that technobrilliance does not<BR>open per se new avenues in
order to produce innovative thought about the<BR>information stuff of human
societies. Alternatively we may think that<BR>the accelerated digitalization
of our world and the cyborg-symbiosis of<BR>human information and computer
information do not demand much brain<BR>teasing, as it is a matter that social
evolution is superseding by itself.<BR><BR>The point I have ocasionally raised
in this list is whether all the new<BR>molecular knowledge about life might
teach us about a fundamental<BR>difference in the "way of being in the world"
between life and inert<BR>matter (& mechanism & computation)---or not.
In the recent compilation<BR>by Plamen and colleagues from the former INBIOSA
initiative, I have<BR>argued about that fundamental difference in the
intertwining of<BR>communication/self-production, how signaling is strictly
caught in the<BR>advancement of a life cycle (see paper "How the living
is in the<BR>world"). Life is based on an inusitate informational formula
unknown in<BR>inert matter. And the very organization of life provides an
original<BR>starting point to think anew about information --of course, not
the only<BR>one.<BR><BR>So, to conclude this "tangent", I find quite exciting
the discussion we<BR>are starting now, say from the classical info positions
onwards, in<BR>particularly to be compared in some future with another session
(in<BR>preparation) with similar ambition but starting from say
the<BR>phenomenology of the living. Struggling for
a<BR>convergence/complementarity of outcomes would be a cavalier
effort.<BR><BR>All the best--Pedro<BR><BR><BR><BR>Steven Ericsson-Zenith
wrote:<BR>> ...The subject is one that has concerned me ever since I
completed my PhD in 1992. I came away from defending my thesis, essentially on
large scale parallel computation, with the strong intuition that I had
disclosed much more concerning the little that we know, than I had offered
either a theoretical or engineering solution. <BR>><BR>> For the
curious, a digital copy of this thesis can be found among the reports of CRI,
MINES ParisTech, formerly ENSMP,
http://www.cri.ensmp.fr/classement/doc/A-232.pdf, it is also available as a
paper copy on Amazon.<BR>><BR>> Like many that have been involved in
microprocessor and instruction set/language design, using mathematical
methods, we share the physical concerns of a generation earlier, people like
John Von Neumann, Alan Turing, and Claude Shannon. In other words, a close
intersection between physical science and machine engineering.<BR>><BR>>
...I will then discuss some historical issues in particular referencing
Benjamin Peirce, Albert Einstein and Alan Turing. And finally discuss the
contemporary issues, as I see them, in biophysics, biology, and associated
disciplines, reaching into human and other social constructions, perhaps
touching on cosmology and the extended role of information theory in
mathematical physics...<BR>><BR>><BR>>
_______________________________________________<BR>> Fis mailing
list<BR>> Fis@listas.unizar.es<BR>>
http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis<BR>>
<BR><BR><BR>-- <BR>-------------------------------------------------<BR>Pedro
C. Marijuán<BR>Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group<BR>Instituto
Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud<BR>Centro de Investigación Biomédica de
Aragón (CIBA)<BR>Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta X<BR>50009 Zaragoza,
Spain<BR>Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (&
6818)<BR>pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es<BR>http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/<BR>-------------------------------------------------<BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Fis
mailing list<BR>Fis@listas.unizar.es<BR><A
href="http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis">http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis</A></FONT></DIV><FONT
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 size=2 face="Century Gothic" FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10">____________<BR>Howard Bloom<BR>Author of: <I>The Lucifer
Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History</I>
("mesmerizing"-<I>The Washington Post</I>),<BR><I>Global Brain: The Evolution
of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 21st Century</I> ("reassuring and
sobering"-<I>The New Yorker)</I>,<BR><I>The Genius of the Beast: A Radical
Re-Vision of Capitalism</I> ("A tremendously enjoyable book." James Fallows,
National Correspondent, <I>The Atlantic</I>),<BR><I>The God Problem: How A
Godless Cosmos Creates</I> ("Bloom's argument will rock your world." Barbara
Ehrenreich),<BR><I>How I Accidentally Started the Sixties</I> ("Wow! Whew!
Wild!<BR>Wonderful!" Timothy Leary), and<BR><I>The Mohammed Code</I> ("A
terrifying book…the best book I've read on Islam." David Swindle,<I> PJ
Media</I>).<BR>www.howardbloom.net<BR>Former Core Faculty Member, The Graduate
Institute; Former Visiting Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York
University.<BR>Founder: International Paleopsychology Project; Founder, Space
Development Steering Committee; Founder: The Group Selection Squad; Founding
Board Member: Epic of Evolution Society; Founding Board Member, The Darwin
Project; Founder: The Big Bang Tango Media Lab; member: New York Academy of
Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American
Psychological Society, Academy of Political Science, Human Behavior and
Evolution Society, International Society for Human Ethology, Scientific
Advisory Board Member, Lifeboat Foundation; Editorial Board Member, Journal of
Space Philosophy; Board member and member of Board of Governors, National
Space Society.</FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 size=2 face=Verdana
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