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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dear FISers,<br>
<p>Taking seriously the idea of information principles, quite
probably demands a specific discussion on principles. Why do we
need "principles" at all? Because of our cognitive limitations.
An infinite intellect would traverse all spans of knowledge
without any discontinuity--presumably. In our collective
scientific enterprise, however, we create special disciplines in
order to share understandable discourses between the limited
individuals of each thought-collective. As knowledge accumulates
and gets more and more complex, particularly in the encounter
with other discourses, the growing epistemic distances fragment
the original discipline, and a new subdiscipline becomes
necessary. It starts then a fresh new discourse, with its own
principles. In my brief mention of Ortega, what he accuses
Leibnitz is that being the champion of principles in science, he
becomes fragmentary and asystematic in his
meta-scientific/philosophical "mode of thinking": the
hypersystematic expresses himself fragmentarily (Ortega dixit).
It is curious that along the survey of principles in Ortega's
book, the most frequent interlocutor is not Leibnitz, but
Aristotle! Although Husserl, Heidegger, Descartes, Pappus,
Plato, Suarez, Spinoza... and some others big names also appear,
his main concern (to my taste) is discussing Aristotle's view of
specialized disciplines starting from their respective
principles, empirically-sensuously obtained and "uncommunicated"
in between the different fields. It is very intriguing.</p>
<p>If the principles of different disciplines are factually
uncommunicated, the info science view of a new body of
knowledge running across all scales is caught into a difficult
"principled" position. Nevertheless, the three blocks I
distinguished (info per se, bioinfo, ecology of knowledge) seem
to allow some fertile conjugation inside/outside... but the
problem remains. I think it is solvable, as in our times there
is a central element that allows a whole new scientific
discourse on information. The dense relationship between life
and information has nowadays acquired a formidable empirical
background, leveraged by the most basic disciplines--physics,
chemistry, computer science, and biology itself.<br>
</p>
<p>More concretely, the notion of the "information flow" can
almost be sketched properly, both in its signaling textures and
in the fundamental relationship with the life cycle--and not
very differently along the evolutionary process. Thereafter,
recombination appears as one of the fundamental emergences in
the growing complexity of the evolving information dynamics
around life cycles and information/energy flows. The
recombination phenomenon happens for the knowledge-stocks of
cells, nervous systems, enterprises,
sciences-technologies-cultures... It accumulates amazing
combinatoric, topological, dynamic, and closure properties in
the different realms, flowing up and down among scales,
multidimensionally, and maintaining afloa the whole game of
adaptive existences.</p>
<p>Our disciplines may apparently work by themselves,
autonomously, but actually they do not. Rather than "on top",
they work "on tap". They endlessly recombine in the ecology of
knowledge, differently for each problem and for each occasion,
creating new theoretical and applied subdisciplines in the
thousands. Information science has to shed light on that
fundamental factor of contemporary societies. And more
"psychologically" this discipline has to put LIFE, both
individual life and social life, at the very center of the
sharing of meaning. A new way of thinking starting from specific
information principles will liberate our limited intellects to
more creative endeavors. It is time to quote Whitehead: "Civilization
advances by extending the number of important operations which
we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of
thought are like cavalry charges in a battle —they are strictly
limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be
made at decisive moments.<span class="st">"</span><br>
</p>
Best wishes--Pedro<br>
<br>
<br>
El 20/09/2017 a las 17:46, Michel Godron escribió:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:7c7fd99f-d422-8c9b-c262-109d8bcfd537@wanadoo.fr"
type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
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<p>My remarks are written in red <br>
</p>
<div class="moz-signature">Bien reçu votre message. MERCI.
Cordialement. M. Godron</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Le 20/09/2017 à 13:54, Pedro C.
Marijuan a écrit :<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:903f473c-ce98-9425-3b3e-cf357bae89cc@aragon.es">
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dear FISers,<br>
<br>
Many thanks for all the comments and criticisms. Beyond
concrete agreements/disagreements the discussion is lively,
and that is the main point. It is complicate pointing at some
fundamental, ultimate reality based on disciplinary claims.
Putting it differently, the hierarchies between scientific
disciplines were fashionable particularly in the reductionism
times; but now fortunately those decades (70s, 80s) are far
away. Actually, the new views taking shape are not far from
the term "knowledge recombination" that appears in some of the
principles discussed. Modern research could be typified by
being: curiosity-led, technologically driven, multi-scaled,
interdisciplinary, and integrative (paraphrasing Cuthill et
al., 2017). Contemporary philosophers like John Dupré have
dealt with some soft "perspectivism" but they do not deal with
the disciplinary recombination rigorously. I think this is one
of the main concerns of our nascent info-science.<br>
Rafael in his message enters into some undergrounds of the
idea of Principles/Methods/Explanations in the way Ortega
discusses it for Leibnitz. That book is particularly dense,
and I am not aware of interesting synthesis about it. One of
its early claims is that Principles have to be evident
(intuitive for Husserl), useful for verification and for the
construction of logical proofs, and further they have to open
"new ways of thinking" ("modos de pensar" for Ortega).<font
color="#cc0000">I fully agree.</font> For Leibnitz,
according to Ortega, "thinking is proving" so the classical
emphasis was on the logical power of principles. <font
color="#cc0000">Leibniz has built une "combinatoire"
calculable .</font>But their capability to support an
inspiring new way of thinking was ignored or just left
implicit. <font color="#cc0000">Leibniz has largely developed
new ways of thinking, mainly in his <i>Théodicée</i><i>.</i>
! </font>And this is a big problem not only in our field
but in many multidisciplinary endeavors: excellent research
ideas are accompanied by really vulgar "metaphysics" (or
better, metadisciplinary views). See for instance the Big Data
research on so-called "social physics". Or the excellent book
on "Scale" recently published (great at climbing from atoms to
cells, organisms, enterprises, and cities; but really poor in
the multifarious information/communication underlying worlds).<font
color="#cc0000"> The book <i>Ecologie et évolution du monde
vivant </i>showed how Brillouin's information helps to
understand Life at all scales by self-organization. Would
you like that I send two or three pages explaining that in
my poor english ? </font><br>
Anyhow, these are superficial comments inspired by the many
excellent messages exchanged. There is a self-organization of
the discussion taking place, and it is nice that we are
concentrating discussion on the 3 first principles, somehow
devoted to information per se. Once we smash these topics, we
may go for the biologically related (principles 4-6), later on
for the recombination and ecology of knowledge (principles
7-9), and finally for the ethical goals of our new science
efforts, as Joseph has commented (principle 10).<br>
<br>
Best whishes to all<br>
--Pedro <br>
<br>
<br>
The El 19/09/2017 a las 11:30, Pedro C. Marijuan escribió:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1f5928c8-80f7-2a18-361f-e3de6089136b@aragon.es"
type="cite">
<p>-------- Mensaje reenviado --------</p>
<div class="moz-forward-container">
<table class="moz-email-headers-table">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap">Asunto: </th>
<td>Re: [Fis] PRINCIPLES OF IS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap">Fecha: </th>
<td>Tue, 19 Sep 2017 09:21:51 +0200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap">De: </th>
<td>Rafael Capurro <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:rafael@capurro.de"
moz-do-not-send="true"><rafael@capurro.de></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap">Responder a: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:rafael@capurro.de"
moz-do-not-send="true">rafael@capurro.de</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap">Para: </th>
<td>Pedro C. Marijuan <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es"
moz-do-not-send="true"><pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es></a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dear Pedro,<br>
<br>
a short comment to your intro to the 10 principles: I very
much agree with your views (following Ortega) that
information science can be conceived as a multifaceted or
"multifarious" network of concepts and theories dealing
phenomena partly related partly not (yet) related with
each other for which we need different languages/concepts
and 'translations' and kinds of calculations also with
regard to their goals and 'utility'. <br>
<br>
If this makes sense, then we should try to develop some
kind of 'principles' or 'archai' in the Greek sense, i.e.,
of 'initial forces' that give rise to possibilities of
'un-concealing' different kinds of phenomena that we could
not see when disregarding other paths or by not entering
through other 'portals' each portal announcing different
kinds of what makes sense or not when entering the path. <br>
<br>
Sometimes it makes sense to go up and see the landscapes
from the top, knowing that this view(s) from the top also
conceal a lot of things on the bottom. It is easiear to
understand these 'principles' if we have experience with
walking in the mountains (but also in other natural and
artificial environments like a forest, a desert, cities
etc.). Maybe we could learn from such experiences which
kind of 'principles' are to be conssidered in the
'methods' (hodos = path) of scientific research. <br>
<br>
So, my suggestion is to invite our FIS colleagues to
describe phenomenologically their walking experiences and
'principles' in different enviroments (mountains etc.) and
try to 'translate' (trans-late) them into the field of
information science.<br>
<br>
Best<br>
<br>
Rafael<br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:24f7e2aa-a275-0ede-d401-550a3a8aa5fc@aragon.es"
type="cite"> Dear FIS Colleagues,<br>
<br>
As promised herewith the "10 principles of information
science". A couple of previous comments may be in order. <br>
First, what is in general the role of principles in
science? I was motivated by the unfinished work of
philosopher Ortega y Gasset, "The idea of principle in
Leibniz and the evolution of deductive theory"
(posthumously published in 1958). Our tentative
information science seems to be very different from other
sciences, rather multifarious in appearance and concepts,
and cavalierly moving from scale to scale. What could be
the specific role of principles herein? Rather than
opening homogeneous realms for conceptual development,
these information principles would appear as a sort of
"portals" that connect with essential topics of other
disciplines in the different organization layers, but at
the same time they should try to be consistent with each
other and provide a coherent vision of the information
world.<br>
And second, about organizing the present discussion, I bet
I was too optimistic with the commentators scheme. In any
case, for having a first glance on the whole scheme, the
opinions of philosophers would be very interesting. In
order to warm up the discussion, may I ask John Collier,
Joseph Brenner and Rafael Capurro to send some initial
comments / criticisms? Later on, if the commentators idea
flies, Koichiro Matsuno and Wolfgang Hofkirchner would be
very valuable voices to put a perspectival end to this
info principles discussion (both attended the Madrid
bygone FIS 1994 conference)... <br>
But this is FIS list, unpredictable in between the frozen
states and the chaotic states! So, everybody is invited to
get ahead at his own, with the only customary limitation
of two messages per week.<br>
<br>
Best wishes, have a good weekend --Pedro<br>
<br>
<p><b>10 </b><b>PRINCIPLES OF INFORMATION SCIENCE</b></p>
<p>1. Information is information, neither matter nor
energy.</p>
<p>2. Information is comprehended into structures,
patterns, messages, or flows.</p>
<p>3. Information can be recognized, can be measured, and
can be processed (either computationally or
non-computationally).</p>
<p>4. Information flows are essential organizers of life's
self-production processes--anticipating, shaping, and
mixing up with the accompanying energy flows.</p>
<p>5. Communication/information exchanges among adaptive
life-cycles underlie the complexity of biological
organizations at all scales.</p>
<p>6. It is symbolic language what conveys the essential
communication exchanges of the human species--and
constitutes the core of its "social nature." </p>
<p>7. Human information may be systematically converted
into efficient knowledge, by following the "knowledge
instinct" and further up by applying rigorous
methodologies.</p>
<p>8. Human cognitive limitations on knowledge
accumulation are partially overcome via the social
organization of "knowledge ecologies." <br>
</p>
<p>9. Knowledge circulates and recombines socially, in a
continuous actualization that involves "creative
destruction" of fields and disciplines: the intellectual
<i>Ars Magna.</i> <br>
</p>
<p>10. Information science proposes a new, radical vision
on the information and knowledge flows that support
individual lives, with profound consequences for
scientific-philosophical practice and for social
governance. <br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta 0
50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es" moz-do-not-send="true">pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/" moz-do-not-send="true">http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/</a>
------------------------------------------------- </pre>
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</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Prof.em. Dr. Rafael Capurro
Hochschule der Medien (HdM), Stuttgart, Germany
Capurro Fiek Foundation for Information Ethics (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.capurro-fiek-foundation.org" moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.capurro-fiek-foundation.org</a>)
Distinguished Researcher at the African Centre of Excellence for Information Ethics (ACEIE), Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Chair, International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE) (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://icie.zkm.de" moz-do-not-send="true">http://icie.zkm.de</a>)
Editor in Chief, International Review of Information Ethics (IRIE) (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.i-r-i-e.net" moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.i-r-i-e.net</a>)
Postal Address: Redtenbacherstr. 9, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany
E-Mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rafael@capurro.de" moz-do-not-send="true">rafael@capurro.de</a>
Voice: + 49 - 721 - 98 22 9 - 22 (Fax: -21)
Homepage: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.capurro.de" moz-do-not-send="true">www.capurro.de</a>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta 0
50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es" moz-do-not-send="true">pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/" moz-do-not-send="true">http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/</a>
------------------------------------------------- </pre>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta 0
50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es">pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/">http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/</a>
------------------------------------------------- </pre>
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