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<p>Dear colleagues</p>
<p>In order to know the relations between living organisms and their
environment, I use Brillouin's formula (and its fundamental
thermodynamical signification) to compute the information
contained in biological structures and the probability of events.</p>
<p>It is written in french, but I could prepare an english version
if you help me. <br>
</p>
<p>Cordialement.
M. Godron</p>
Le 04/10/2017 à 09:16, Loet Leydesdorff a écrit :<br>
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<p dir="ltr">Nobody of us is able to provide an operative
framework and a single (just one!) empirical testable
prevision able to assess "information". <br>
</p>
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<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412">Dear colleague, </div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412"><br>
</div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412">One should not confuse the confusion
on the list with the clarity of the concept information in
information theory. This definition is operational (e.g., in
bits). Your computer would not work without this definition (1
byte = 8 bits). The problem is that this definition of
information as uncertainty is counter-intuitive. </div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412"><br>
</div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412">The search for an intuitive
definition of information has led to unclear definitions. In a
recent book, Hidalgo (2015, at p. 165), for example, has
defined “information” with reference “to the order embodied in
codified sequences, such as those found in music or DNA, while
<i>knowledge and knowhow </i>refer to the ability of a system
to process information.” However, codified knowledge can be
abstract and—like music—does not have to be “embodied” (e.g.,
Cowan, David, & Foray, 2000). </div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412"><br>
</div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412">Beyond Hidalgo’s position, Floridi
(2010, p. 21) proposed “a general definition of information”
according to which “the well-formed data are <i>meaningful</i>”
(italics of the author). Luhmann (1995, p. 67) posits that
“all information has meaning.” In his opinion, information
should therefore be considered as a selection mechanism.
Kauffman et al. (2008, at p. 28) added to the confusion by
defining information as “natural selection.” </div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412"><br>
</div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412">Against these attempt to bring
information and meaning under a single denominator--and to
identify variation with selection--I argue for a dualistic
perspective (as did Prof. Zhong in a previous email).
Information and meaning should not be confounded. Meaning is
generated from redundancies (Bateson, 1972, p. 420; Weaver,
1949; see Leydesdorff <i>et al.</i>, 2017).</div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412"><br>
</div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412">Best,</div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412">Loet</div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412"><br>
</div>
<div id="xa1cf249fe1ca412"><b>References:</b></div>
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<div id="x15e0e0a182fd4d928903b2a065ba6dd9">
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<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Bateson, G. (1972). <i>Steps
to an Ecology of Mind</i>. New York: Ballantine.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Cowan, R.,
David, P., & Foray, D. (2000). The Explicit Economics
of Knowledge
Codification and Tacitness. <i>Industrial
and Corporate Change, 9</i>(2), 211-253.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span>Floridi, L. (2010). </span><i>Information:
A very short introduction</i><span>.
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Hidalgo, C.
(2015). <i>Why Information Grows: The
Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies</i>. New
York: Basic Books.</p>
<div id="x07ac80f52f5746f7a1bbce5504d2f8c8">
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Kauffman, S., Logan, R. K.,
Este, R., Goebel, R., Hobill, D.,
& Shmulevich, I. (2008). Propagating organization:
an enquiry. <i>Biology and Philosophy, 23</i>(1),
27-45. </p>
<div id="x70cc0e79e6db478f8eb4530b04cff5e7">
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span>Leydesdorff, L.,
Johnson, M., & Ivanova, I. (2017). Toward a
Calculus of Redundancy: Signification, Codification,
and Anticipation in Cultural Evolution. </span> <span><a
href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3030525"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3030525</a></span>
<span>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Luhmann, N. ([1984] 1995).
<i>Social Systems</i>. Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press.</p>
<div id="x55c619d6a2ce4e7ea38b2ed86250f4be">
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Weaver, W.
(1949). Some Recent Contributions to the
Mathematical Theory of Communication.
In C. E. Shannon & W. Weaver (Eds.), <i>The
Mathematical Theory of Communication</i> (pp.
93-117.). <span lang="NL">Urbana: University of
Illinois Press.</span></p>
</div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Loet
Leydesdorff </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Professor,
University of Amsterdam<br>
Amsterdam School of Communication Research
(ASCoR)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><a
href="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net"
title="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>loet@leydesdorff.net
</span></a></span><span>; </span><span><a
href="http://www.leydesdorff.net/"
title="http://www.leydesdorff.net/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>http://www.leydesdorff.net/</span></a></span><span>
<br>
</span><span>Associate Faculty, </span><span><a
href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>SPRU, </span></a></span><span>University
of Sussex; </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Guest Professor </span><span><a
href="http://www.zju.edu.cn/english/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>Zhejiang Univ.</span></a></span><span>,
Hangzhou; Visiting Professor, </span><span><a
href="http://www.istic.ac.cn/Eng/brief_en.html" moz-do-not-send="true"><span>ISTIC,
</span></a></span><span>Beijing;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Visiting Fellow, </span><span><a
href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>Birkbeck</span></a></span><span>,
University of London; </span></p>
<span><span><a
href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en</a></span></span></div>
<div id="x337b22579712426abf55c20f258d0a74"><span><br>
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