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<DIV><FONT size=4>Dear Howard,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Thank you very much for your great effort and nice
explanation!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>I like it!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Only what I needed to see is a concrete answer to the question
“what it the Information?”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>You absolutely clearly described it and I totally agree with
your considerations.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Only what is needed is to conclude with a short
definition.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>I think it may be the next:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The Information is a reflection which may be interpreted by
its receiver in the context the receiver has in his/her memory.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>From this definition many consequences follow. In future we
may discuss them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Friendly regards</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Krassimir</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>PS:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Dear FIS Colleagues,<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>1. At the ITHEA web side, the conferences for year 2016 have
been announced.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>One of them is the XIV-th International Conference on “General
Information Theory”.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Please visit link:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A title=http://www.ithea.org/conferences/conferences.html
href="http://www.ithea.org/conferences/conferences.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.ithea.org/conferences/conferences.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Welcome in Varna, Bulgaria !</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>2. May be it will be interesting to read the paper, published
in our </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>International Journal “Information Theories and Applications”
( </FONT><A title=http://www.foibg.com/ijita/
href="http://www.foibg.com/ijita/"><FONT
size=4>http://www.foibg.com/ijita/</FONT></A><FONT size=4> ) :</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A
title="Formal Theory of Semantic and Pragmatic Information - a Technocratic Approach Venco Bojilov"
href="http://www.foibg.com/ijita/vol22/ijita22-04-p05.pdf"><FONT size=4>Formal
Theory of Semantic and Pragmatic Information - a Technocratic
Approach</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>by Venco Bojilov</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A title=http://www.foibg.com/ijita/vol22/ijita22-04-p05.pdf
href="http://www.foibg.com/ijita/vol22/ijita22-04-p05.pdf"><FONT
size=4>http://www.foibg.com/ijita/vol22/ijita22-04-p05.pdf</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Please send your remarks to the author to e-mail: </FONT><A
href="mailto:office@ithea.org"><FONT size=4>office@ithea.org</FONT></A><FONT
size=4> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Krassimir</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
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<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><FONT face=Calibri><FONT size=4><B>From:</B>
</FONT></FONT><A title=HowlBloom@aol.com href="mailto:HowlBloom@aol.com"><FONT
size=4 face=Calibri>HowlBloom@aol.com</FONT></A><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT size=4><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, February 02, 2016
8:46 AM</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT size=4><B>To:</B> </FONT></FONT><A
title=pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es"><FONT
size=4 face=Calibri>pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</FONT></A><FONT size=4
face=Calibri> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT size=4><B>Cc:</B> </FONT></FONT><A
title=fis@listas.unizar.es href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es"><FONT size=4
face=Calibri>fis@listas.unizar.es</FONT></A><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT size=4><B>Subject:</B> [Fis] _ Closing
lecture</FONT></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'><FONT
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<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>First, a few
responses.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I agree with Hans von
Baeyer.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Pedro’s kindness is
magic.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>I agree with Gyorgy
Darvas that quarks communicate.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>I also agree with
Jerry Chandler.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Brute force is not
the major mover of history.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Values
and virtues count.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A lot.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In fact, a culture organizes itself by
calling one way of doing things evil—brute force—and another way of doing things
a value<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>and a virtue.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Our way is the value and the
virtue.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The ways of others are
brute force and evil.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We see
cooperation<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>and warmth among
us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But only enmity <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>and destruction among them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>The<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>brute force is not
<STRONG>within</STRONG> groups, where values, virtues, and compassion
prevail.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s
<STRONG>between</STRONG> groups.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It’s in the pecking order battles between groups.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>Which means, in
answer to Marcus Abundis, yes, groups struggle for position in inter-group
hierarchies like chickens in a barnyard.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>For example, America and China are vying right now for top position in
the barnyard of nations.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Russia’s
in that battle, too.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On a lower
level, so are Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose proxy war in Syria for pecking order
dominance has cost a quarter of a million lives.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s brute force.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Between groups whose citizens are often
lovely and loving to each other. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Whose citizens are proud of their values
and virtues.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>Now for a final
statement.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>Information exists
in a context.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s not at all
surprising.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Information is all
about context.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As the writings of
Guenther Witzany hint. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And as
Ludwig Wittgenstein also suggested.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Information is relational.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Information does not exist in a vacuum.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It connects participants.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And it makes things happen.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When it’s not connecting participants,
it’s not information<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>FIS gets fired up
to a high energy level when discussing the definition of information and its
relationship to Shannon’s entropic information equation.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Alas, these discussions tend<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>to remove the context.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And context is what gives information
its indispensable ingredient, meaning.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>There are two basic
approaches in science:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><FONT
face=Calibri><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: symbol"><SPAN
style="mso-list: ignore">·<SPAN
style='FONT: 7pt "Times New Roman"'>
</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN>the abstract mathematical; <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoListParagraphCxSpLast
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><FONT
face=Calibri><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: symbol"><SPAN
style="mso-list: ignore">·<SPAN
style='FONT: 7pt "Times New Roman"'>
</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN>and the observational empirical.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>Mathematical
abstractionists dwell on definitions and equations.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Empirical observers gather facts.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Darwin was an observational empiricist.
I’d like to see more of Darwin’s kind of science in the world of information
theory.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>One of Darwin’s
most important contributions was not the concept of natural selection.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was an approach that Darwin got from
Kant and from his grandfather Erasmus.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That approach?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Lay out the
history of the cosmos on a timeline and piece together its story.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In chronological order.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Piece together the saga of how this
cosmos has created itself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Including the self-motivated, self-creation of
life.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>Communication plays
a vital role in this story.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It
appears in the first 10(-32) of a second of the cosmos’ existence, when quarks
communicated using attraction and repulsion cues.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>OK, it’s not quite right to call the
cues attraction and repulsion cues.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>When two quarks sized each other up, they interpreted the signals of the
strong force differently.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you
were a quark, another quark might size you up and promptly speed away.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But a quark of a different variety might
detect the same signals, find them wildly attractive, and speed in your
direction.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One quark’s meat was
another’s poison, even in that first form of communication in the cosmos.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>Information is not
a stand-alone.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Again, it’s
contextual.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s ruled by what
Guenther Witzany calls syntax, semantics, and, most important of all,
pragmatics.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Its meaning comes from
where it fits in a bigger picture.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>Were the signals
quarks exchanged information?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not
according to many of the definitions in FIS.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some of those definitions say that to be
regarded as information, a sender must deliberately signify something
symbolically.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She must, for
example, want to warn you about a poisoned apple.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She must put that message in symbols,
like the words “poisoned apple,” then convey that signal to a receiver.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If she doesn’t want to see you poisoned,
she might text you, “watch out for poisoned apples.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m not sure whether the definitions
extant in FIS demand that you look at her text or not.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Much less whether you act on
it.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>In my latest book,
<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos
Creates</I>, I propose a different definition of information.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Information is anything a receiver can
decode, anything he can decipher.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>How do you know a receiver has decoded a message?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Through the decoder’s actions.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you are a quark and you detect my
strong force, you either scoot away or you rush over and join me.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You act.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you are a neurosurgeon looking at an
mri, you make internal decisions, mental decisions.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You don’t move physically.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not at first.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But you move mentally.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You imagine your scalpel poised over a
different spot than you might have picked before seeing the mri.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>Information is
anything a receiver can decode.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So
starlight reaching planet earth 4.5 billion years ago, nearly half a billion
years before the appearance of the first life, was not information.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There was no one or no thing that
interpreted it, translated it, or acted on it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But starlight in the age of the
Babylonians 2,600 years ago was highly informational.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Entire teams of scribes and priests
spent their lives observing it and interpreting it. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Many of their interpretations were
detailed bullet points of political and personal advice to the ruler.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Was there motion in response to
starlight?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You bet.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Starlight literally moved the troops and
policies of empires.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>And today, when
there are tens of thousands of professional astronomers and millions of amateurs
with telescopes, all churning out data and emails<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>to each other, the amount of information
in starlight has skyrocketed.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But,
in fact, the actual starlight has not increased.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not a bit.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s the number of interpreters that’s
shot up.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And with the interpreters,
something else has mushroomed: the information, the interpretation, and the
theories along with their supporting or opposing “facts.”<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>The timeline of
communication from quarks to empires is crucial.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s the natural history we need to see
the evolution of information.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>No
matter what we define information to be.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The timeline of the cosmos is context on the biggest scale.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It can make new meaning of facts we
scarcely see.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It can make more
phenomena we experience every day but do not see into, guess what?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Information.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>That’s a timeline
I’m working on.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT size=4>Thanks for having
me in your group.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And thanks for
giving me a chance to share thoughts with you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>howard</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 size=4 ptsize="10" family="SANSSERIF">____________<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 ptsize="10" family="SANSSERIF"><BR>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>In a message dated 2/1/2016 8:46:55 A.M. Eastern Standard
Time, pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es writes:</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=4>Thanks Howard.
Please, at your convenience send the concluding comments to the fis list.
<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT>
<P><FONT size=4></FONT></P><FONT size=4>
<HR>
</FONT><FONT size=4>_______________________________________________<BR>Fis
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