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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">I agree with Gyorgy Darvas that
quarks communicate.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">Now for a final
statement.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">There are two basic approaches
in science:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><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></P>
<P class=MsoListParagraphCxSpLast
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">That’s a timeline I’m working
on.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">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></P></DIV>
<DIV>howard</DIV>
<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 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 2/1/2016 8:46:55 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>Thanks
Howard. Please, at your convenience send the concluding comments to the fis
list. <BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>