<font color='black' size='2' face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif'>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Xueshan,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>a huge thanks for your contribution to this dialog. here's mine</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">"information is anything a receiver can interpret." information is in the eye of the beholder.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><br>
</blockquote>
<div>for more, see my book The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>here's a sample:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">If meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> is anything that a translator can understand, anything that a
translator can interpret, anything that a translator can decode, then the
amount of meaning in this cosmos<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span> XE "cosmos" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> is constantly increasing. Meaning defies the law of entropy<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "entropy" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, the second law of
thermodynamics. Meaning does not ebb
away. It is not erased by disorder<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "entropy:disorder" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. It is on the rise. It is constantly piling up. And its pile is reaching toward the
heavens. Not to mention pouring from the
skies.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Let's take a simple example—starlight. This planet, Mother Earth<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "Earth" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, pulled itself together from
random<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"random" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> pebbles,
iceballs, and supersized gravity<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span> XE "gravity" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> balls 4.5 billion years ago. For the first billion years of Earth's
existence<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "existence" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, streams of photons<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "photons" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> from emitters far, far away, rays of light<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> from distant stars<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, rays of light that looked like pin pricks in the black of the night sky, hit the
surface of this Earth's stone and water<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "water" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, its land and seas. And those beams of light found no
takers. They found no receivers, no
interpreters, no translators. Planet
Earth’s stone and water were indifferent to the existence of light from stars. They were literally not moved by starlight.
The result? Starlight had no meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Were these trickles of light<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> from stars<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> information yet? No. Not by the standard of "information is anything
decoded by a receiver." And not by
the standards of Claude Shannon's "meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->." But things<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "things" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> would not stay that way forever.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Roughly 3.85 billion years ago, life<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "life" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> assembled in the shallows and in the depths of
the seas. And roughly three hundred and
fifty thousand years into life's existence<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "existence" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, cells<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "cells" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> of life stuff first registered the existence
of light<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->. The life
forms that pulled off this trick were cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria were single-celled creatures
that live in societies of trillions. And
cyanobacteria did more than merely register light's presence or absence. They acted on what they “saw.” They used light as a power source. They used light to manufacture food. And they used light to make copies of
themselves. They used light to
multiply. They used light to conquer the
newborn Earth<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "Earth" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->’s rivers, lakes, and seas.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> How?
They invented photosynthesis. They invented an industrial process, a
process of manic mass production, that turned light into polypeptides, sugars,
hydrocarbons, and proteins. A process
of translation<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "translation" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. Translation from one medium<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "medium" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> to another.
A process of motion.
Electron-and-atom motion. Highly
orchestrated motion<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "motion" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. An extraordinarily sophisticated response to
a stimulus.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Back to our question<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "questions:question" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. Was light<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> information yet? Yes.
Translators were decoding it.
Translators were interpreting it.
Translators were transforming it into energy<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "energy" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> conveyors like ATP (adenosine triphosphate)<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
and social<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "social" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> signalling molecules<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "molecules" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> like N-acyl-homoserine lactones and cyclic
oligopeptides.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Turning light into a new language<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "language" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. A language of chemical<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "chemical" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> sentences. What’s more, translators were
grabbing hold of light as a stimulus. And they were responding to it with
action. With metabolism. With movement. With migration to new territories. Was light information yet? You bet.
Why? Because translators had invented a meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. A meaning for the light of
the Sun<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"Sun" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">OK, that was true of sunlight. But what about
starlight? Sorry. It was too weak to register. It still had no translators. No interpreters. So was starlight information yet? No. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Was starlight destined to be an informational orphan
forever? Was it condemned to go unto
eternity without meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->? Or, to put it differently, would starlight’s
lack of eager translators ever change<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "change" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Over three billion years later, there were light<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> translators all over this planet. Not just in the sea<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "sea" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. They had also conquered the land. They were plants<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "plants" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. And their ability to coat the planet with
light-translators—with the solar panels we call leaves—was astonishing. Did this spread of plants, this astonishing
increase in the number of translators,
increase the amount of meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> “in” sunlight?
Had rainforests and ocean kelp increased the number of implicit<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "implicitation:implicit" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> properties that the cosmos<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "cosmos" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> extracts from sunlight? Had they increased the
translation<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "translation" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> of light from one medium<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "medium" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> to another?
Or, to put it differently, had coating the land and lining the seas with
photosynthesizers increased the amount of Shannon's style of information? Had it increased the raw total of response
to the stimulus of sunlight? Again, the
answer is yes. Absolutely.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">But what about starlight?
Still no takers. So was starlight
information yet? Not so far as we know.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Let's skip ahead another 999 million years or so. Let’s fast forward to humans. Roughly 36,000 years ago,<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> humans invented a
simple isomorphic symbol set, a system
of notation. And they carved their notes in mammoth, baboon, and eagle bones.<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> What did they keep notes about? What did the
symbols try to capture? What did they
try to translate? To what were they isomorphic?
The phases of the moon.<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The repetition roughly every thirty days
of a cycle that sees the moon transform
from a fingernail-like sliver, a thin crescent, to a fat and full circle of
light<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->. These
early <i>Homo sapiens</i> apparently used
their carved bones and tusks to keep track of something that they were in the
process of inventing, the concept of time<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "time" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. So moonlight now had translators and
interpreters. Was moonlight information
yet? You bet. Moonlight had meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> extractors.
It had creatures that responded to its changes. It had stimulus, response, and meaning. Did that make it information? I leave the answer up to you.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">But what about starlight? It appears that we humans didn’t make sense of
the random<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "random" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> spray of stars<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> in the black of night until well after the
invention<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "invention" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Then in
roughly 4,000 B.C.E., the Babylonians got into the act and pioneered star-based
mythology, star-based astronomy and astrology. Two thousand years later the
inhabitants of Britain and Scotland built hundreds of groupings of massive
boulders like Stonehenge and apparently used those boulder circles to translate
alignments of the Sun<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "Sun" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->, the moon, and the stars into a language<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "language" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> whose letters were fashioned from stone.<a href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> And across the Atlantic Ocean, the Aztecs,
Incas and Mayans, too, translated the connect-the-dots of the stars into stone,
into ritual, and into the synchronized behavior<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "behavior" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> of citizens far and wide.<a href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Which brings us back to the basic question<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "questions:question" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. The amount of sunlight has gone up twenty six
percent since life<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "life" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> first
evolved.<a href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> And old stars<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> have died<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "death" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> and new ones been born in the night sky. But
is that what has jacked up the amount of information on this earthly ball? Not a bit. But has the information content on
this planet grown? Has the meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> increased? Have the number and variety of responses to
light<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->'s stimulus gone up? Have the number of breakthroughs that light
inspired soared? Have the number of
inventions<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "inventions" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> that light triggered climbed? You bet.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">So in the days of the henge-makers, was the cosmos<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "cosmos" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> following the second law of
thermodynamics? Was the universe<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "universe" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> demonstrating entropy<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "entropy" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->? Was information sliding down a slippery slope
to disorder<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "entropy:disorder" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->? Not one bit.
Claude Shannon’s style of information may or may not have been on the
increase. But meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> was rocketing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Then in the land between the two rivers, in Mesopotamia,
came tribes, city states, and empires. With
full-time<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "time" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> star
priests, full-time scribes who thought that they could read the secrets of the
universe<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"universe" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> and the secrets
of their politicians’ futures in the stars<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. For one hundred generations—for roughly 2,000
years<a href="#_edn10" name="_ednref10" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[x]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>—these
astronomers and astrologers watched the stars for the kings of Mesopotamia, the
kings of the thirty one cities of The Land of the Lords of Brightness. For one hundred generations the professional
star translators made meticulous
observations, translated what they saw into the symbol set of cuneiform,
recorded those cuneiform translations on clay hand tablets, and deposited the
tablets in libraries of as many as twenty thousand clay tablets<a href="#_edn11" name="_ednref11" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[xi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
each in the palaces of kings. Today there are over 1.5 million cuneiform
tablets in museums around the world.<a href="#_edn12" name="_ednref12" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[xii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Needless to say, not all of them concern
astronomy. But all are translations of
experience into isomorphic symbol sets. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">How very much like cyanobacteria translating sunlight
into a language<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "language" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> of biochemicals. How very much like leaves translating
sunlight into panels, sheets, threads, and stems of cells<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "cells" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">The Mesopotamian priestly tablets recorded the movements
of the constellations and the stars<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. But that wasn’t all. The Mesopotamian scribe priests built one
layer of symbol set upon another. The
scribe priests invented three new symbol sets—written language<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "language" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, mathematical procedures, and
charts. Why? To understand the “messages<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "messages" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->” of starlight. And they used those “messages” to read the
minds<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"mind" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> of the
gods<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"gods" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->. What’s
more, they advised that rulers act according to the stars’ “messages.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Had the amount of starlight making it to the surface of
the Earth<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "Earth" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> gone
up? Not a single iota. But had the amount of information shot
up? Had the number of meanings and the
number of creatures paying attention<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "attention" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> to those meanings skyrocketed? Had <i>responses</i>
to the tiny bits of light<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> from the
stars<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> been
fruitful and multiplied? Even in Claude
Shannon’s crippled terminology, the amount of meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> had soared. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Meanwhile, Babylon’s star priests were just starting
starlight’s informational odyssey. Today there are hundreds of thousands of
professional and amateur telescopes pointing at the heavens, and all of them
are trying to find yet more meanings in starlight. We've used our telescopes to see that some
dots in the black heavens of night, dots that we originally thought were stars<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, are sky-swirls, tiny spirals in the sky. We've had the “Great Debate” of April 26, 1920 between Heber Curtis and
Harlow Shapley at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.,<a href="#_edn13" name="_ednref13" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[xiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
a debate over whether those sky twirls are mere spirals of gas inside our Milky
Way, inside our star cluster, or whether they are swirls of something far more
substantial than gas, whether they are swirls of stars. We've had The Great Debate over whether those
swirls are inside our star cluster, our "globular cluster," or
outside of it. We've had the debate over
whether our globular star cluster is a spiral<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "spiral" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> like those strange spiral wisps. We've had the debate about whether our
globular cluster is a tiny 30,000 light<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> years across or a giant 300,000. We've had the
great debate between Curtis and Shapley over whether this is a nice, cozy
universe<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"universe" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> that
includes only our star cluster or whether the cosmos<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "cosmos" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> is an unimaginably vast space<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "space" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> in which "island universes" like
ours, things<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "things" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> called "galaxies<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "galaxies" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->," exist at great
distances from each other, huge, lonely, unimaginable distances. We’ve seen a winner to that debate—the
argument for many galaxies spread over unimaginable distances.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">We’ve used lenses and mirrors to magnify starlight. We’ve used drawings on paper<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "paper" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> and images on glass photographic plates and on
cellulose film to capture the images of stars<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> and to record their positions. We’ve turned that data into electron<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "electron" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> flows, into Claude Shannon’s pluses and
minuses, ons and offs, one and zeros, into binary numbers and into Shannon’s
brilliant language<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "language" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> of electronic circuits—the language of
computers. We’ve stored these
translations of starlight on magnetic film and hard drives.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">And we've used starlight, the streams of photons<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "photons" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> from the stars<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "stars" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, to theorize about the
origins of the universe<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "universe" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> and about the universe's future<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "future" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. Our libraries of scholarly articles and
popular books about starlight-interpretation, starlight-translation<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "translation" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->, have grown huge. So have the numbers of cosmologists, astrophysicists,
and astronomers who’ve dedicated their lives to interpreting that trickle of
light<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"light" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> from the
stars. What’s more, we owe everything
from Newton<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "Newton" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->'s physics<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "physics" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> and Einstein<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "Einstein" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->'s relativity to NASA's space<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "space" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> explorations to starlight. Has the amount of starlight falling on this
planet at night increased? Not a sliver. Not a scratch. So what has gone up? The quantity of interpretation. The quantity
of translation. The quantity of response to a stimulus. The quantity of action. The quantity of repetition in a new context<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "context" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. The quantity of raw glass,
iron, steel, and money dedicated to starlight. And most important, the quantity
of meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">What does this radical increase mean for the quantity of
information "in" starlight?
What does it mean for the total amount of information and meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> on this third gravity<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "gravity" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> ball from the Sun<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "Sun" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->? And what does it mean for the total amount of
information—the total amount of meaning—in the cosmos<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "cosmos" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">If information is anything a receiver can interpret,
anything a translator can translate, has the amount of information gone
up? Or is this merely an explosion of
meaning<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE
"meaning" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->? It's a
semantic quibble. A quibble you can
decide better than I can. But something
has been on the increase. Something has
shot up dramatically. Something complex.
Something extremely social<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span> XE "social" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. Something profoundly conversational. Something that utterly defies the pessimistic
predictions of entropy<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "entropy" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->. And something that seriously challenges an
information theory without meaning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a> J.
William Schopf & Cornelius Klein, <i>The
Proterozoic Biosphere: A Multidisciplinary Study</i> (New York<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>New
York</span>" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->: Cambridge<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Cambridge</span>"
<![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> University Press, 1996), p. 360.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a>
Rafael Palacios, William Edward Newton<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Newton</span>"
<![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->,<i> Genomes and genomics of nitrogen-fixing
organisms</i> (Dordrecht: Springer, 2005), p. 41.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a> Reinhard
Krämer, Kirsten Jung, eds., <i>Bacterial
Signaling</i> (Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2010), pp. 7, 23-24.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a> Paul
G. Bahn, Jean Vertut, <i>Journey Through the
Ice Age</i> (Berkeley CA: <span class="MsoHyperlinkFollowed"><span style="background:white">University of California Press, 1997), </span></span>p. 31. Bryan E. Penprase, <i>The Power of Stars: How Celestial
Observations Have Shaped Civilization</i> (New York<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>New
York</span>" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->: Springer, 2011), p. 134.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn5">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a> Peter
James, Nick Thorpe, <i>Ancient Inventions</i>
(New York<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>New York</span>" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->: Ballantine, 1994), p.
485. Evan Hadingham, <i>Early Man and the Cosmos</i> (New York:
Walker, 1985), pp. 85-88.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn6">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a>
Alexander Marshack, <i>The roots of
civilization: the cognitive beginnings of man's first art, symbol and notation</i>
(Kingston, RI: Moyer Bell, 1991). David
H. Kelley, Eugene F. Milone, Anthony F. Aven, <i>Exploring Ancient Skies: A Survey of Ancient and Cultural Astronomy</i>
(New York<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>
XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>New York</span>" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->: Springer, 2004), pp.
157-158. Paul G. Bahn, ed, <i>An Enquiring
Mind: Studies in Honor of Alexander Marshack</i> (Oxford: Oxbow, 2009).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn7">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a>
A. Thom, “Megalithic astronomy: Indications in standing stones, <i>Vistas in Astronomy</i>, Volume 7, 1966, pp.
1-56. Clive Ruggles, “The stone
alignments of Argyll and Mull: a perspective on the statistical approach in
archaeoastronomy,” in Clive Ruggles,
ed., <i>Records in Stone: Papers in Memory
of Alexander Thom</i> (Cambridge<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span> XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Cambridge</span>"
<![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 233.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn8">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref8" name="_edn8" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a>
Penprase, <i>The Power of Stars</i>, pp. 11,
68, 71, 74-6, 91-92, 123-124.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn9">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref9" name="_edn9" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a>
Kenneth R. Lang, <i>The Sun</i><!--[if supportFields]><i
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span></i>
XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Sun</span>" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><i
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span></i><![endif]--><i> From
Space </i>(Berlin: Springer, 2009), p. 385.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn10">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref10" name="_edn10" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[x]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a> J.
Edward Wright, <i>The early history</i><!--[if supportFields]><i
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span></i>
XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>history</span>" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><i
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span></i><![endif]--><i> of
heaven</i><!--[if supportFields]><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span></i> XE "<span style='font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"'>heaven</span>" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><i
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span></i><![endif]--> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p.
31.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn11">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref11" name="_edn11" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[xi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a> Lorna
Oakes, <i>Mesopotamia</i> (New York<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>New
York</span>" <![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->: Rosen, 2009), p. 54.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn12">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref12" name="_edn12" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[xii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a> Dr.
Tonia Sharlach, “Taxes in Ancient Mesopotamia,” <i>The University of Pennsylvania Almanac</i>, April 2, 2002 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v48/n28/AncientTaxes.html#meso">http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v48/n28/AncientTaxes.html#meso</a> (accessed June 28, 2011). Louise Roug,
"Cuneiform bits become history<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>history</span>"
<![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> bytes," <i>Los Angeles Times</i>, May 27, 2003, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2003/may/27/entertainment/et-roug27">http://articles.latimes.com/2003/may/27/entertainment/et-roug27</a>
(accessed October 12, 2011).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn13">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref13" name="_edn13" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[xiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></a>
Robert W. Smith, <i>The Expanding Universe:
Astronomy's 'Great Debate', 1900-1931</i> (Cambridge<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span> XE "<span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Cambridge</span>"
<![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--> UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></div>
</div>
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<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Howard Bloom</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Howardbloom.net</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Author of: The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History ("mesmerizing"-The Washington Post), </font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 21st Century ("reassuring and sobering"-The New Yorker), </font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism ("A tremendously enjoyable book." James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic), </font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos Creates("Bloom's argument will rock your world." Barbara Ehrenreich), </font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">How I Accidentally Started the Sixties (“Wow! Whew! Wild! Wonderful!” Timothy Leary), and </font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">The Mohammed Code (“A terrifying book…the best book I’ve read on Islam.” David Swindle, PJ Media).</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Former Core Faculty Member, The Graduate Institute; Former Visiting Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York University</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Founder: International Paleopsychology Project. Founder, Space Development Steering Committee. Board Member and Member Of Board Of Governors, National Space Society. Founding Board Member: Epic of Evolution Society. Founding Board Member, The Darwin Project.</font></div>
</div>
</div>
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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Xueshan Yan <yxs@pku.edu.cn><br>
To: FIS Group <fis@listas.unizar.es><br>
Cc: 'Jose Javier Blanco Rivero' <javierweiss@gmail.com><br>
Sent: Mon, Feb 12, 2018 6:33 am<br>
Subject: Re: [Fis] The unification of the theories of information based on the cateogry theory<br>
<br>
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1.2_64d5d6a3-f10e-4f90-8c39-3b80ef5555d2">
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Dear Javier and Dear Stan,</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Javier:</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">1. I very much agree with you as follows:</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:24.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">“I think that only signals can be transmitted, not information. Information can only be gained by an observer (a self-referential system) that draws a distinction.”</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:24.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">A Chinese scholar Dongsheng </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Miao’s </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">argument is: There is no information can exists without carrier, i.e. No naked can exists.</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:24.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">I think both of you two are expressing a principle of information science.</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">2. According to Linguistics, the relationship between language and communication is:</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:24.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Language is a tool of communication about information.</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:24.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Of course, this is only limited to the human atmosphere. So I think that all (Human) Semiotics ((Human) Linguistics), (Human) Communication Study should be the subdisciplines of Human Informatics.</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">==========================================================</span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dear Xueshan,</span></div>
<div style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Thanks for sharing your interesting remarks and references. I think no one really wants to deny the crucial role the language metaphor has played in the thinking of communication and information models. But I believe the crucial point is to distinguish between language and communication. Language is for us humans the main communication medium, though not the only one. We tend to describe other communication media in society and nature by mapping the language-like characteristics they have. This has been useful and sucessful so far. But pushing the language metaphor too far is showing its analytical limits. I think we need to think of a transdisciplinary theory of communication media. On the other hand, I agree with you that we need to check the uses of the concepts of signal and information. I think that only signals can be transmitted, not information. Information can only be gained by an observer (a self-referential system) that draws a distinction. </span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Best,</span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Javier</span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">==============================================</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Stan:</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">According to Peirce, language is only one of the systematic signs. Here we consider sign, signal, symbol as the same thing. So, more precisely in my opinion:</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">{signal {information}}, or {substrate {signal {information}}}</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">But not</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">{language {signal {information}}}</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">If you remember, in our previous discussions, I much appreciate the </span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="text-indent:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">The hierarchy idea is very important to our study which is initially introduced by Pedro, Nikhil and you.</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">===============================================================</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p1"><span class="aolmail_gmail-s1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Xueshan -- I think one can condense some of your insights hierarchically, as:</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">In a system having language, information seemingly may be obtained in other ways as well. It would be a conceptually broader category. Thus (using the compositional hierarchy):</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> [information [language [signal]]]</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Meaning that, when a system has language, all information will be understood or construed by way of linguistic constructs. </span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">(Here I am using ‘signal’ as being more specific than Peirce’s ‘sign’, where:</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> [sign [information [...]]] ) </span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Then, more dynamically (using the subsumptive hierarchy):</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> {language {signal {information}}}</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Information in a languaged system is derived by way linguistic formations, so that, even though it is an extremely broad category, information (informing) only emerges by way of linguistically informed transformations.</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">STAN</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Best wishes to all,</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Xueshan</span></div>
<div class="aolmail_gmail-p2"><span lang="EN-US">===============================================================</span></div>
<div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">El feb 10, 2018 5:23 AM, "Xueshan Yan" <<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:yxs@pku.edu.cn">yxs@pku.edu.cn</a>> escribi</span>ó<span lang="EN-US">:</span></div>
<blockquote style="border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
<div>
<div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">Dear Colleagues,</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">I have read the article "The languages of bacteria" which Gordana recommended, and has gained a lot of inspiration from it. In combination with Sung's comparative linguistics exploration on cell language and human language, I have the following learning feelings to share with everyone:</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">In this article, the author recognized that bacteria have evolved multiple languages for communicating within and between species. Intra- and interspecies cell-cell communication allows bacteria to coordinate various biological activities in order to behave like multicellular organisms. Such as AI-2, it is a general language that bacteria use for intergenera signaling.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">I found an interesting phenomenon in this paper: the author use the concept <i>information</i> 3 times but the concept <i>signal</i> (signal or signaling) 55 times, so we have to review the history and application of </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt">“<span lang="EN-US">information</span>”<span lang="EN-US"> and </span>“<span lang="EN-US">signal</span>”<span lang="EN-US"> in biology and biochemistry, it is helpful for us to understand the relationship between language, signal, and information.</span></span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">The origin of the concept of signal (main the signal transduction) can be traced back to the end of the 1970s. But until 1980, biochemist and endocrinologist Martin Rodbell published an article titled: </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt">“<span lang="EN-US">The Role of Hormone Receptors and GTP-Regulatory Proteins in Membrane Transduction" in <i>Nature, </i>in this paper he used the "signal transduction" first time. Since then, the research on signal transduction is popular in biology and biochemistry.</span></span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">As for any information transmission system, if we pay more attention to its transmission carrier instead of its transmission content, we are used to employing "signal transmission" instead of "signal transduction". From the tradition of the early use of information concept, the signal transduction study of cells is only equivalent to the level of telecommunications before 1948. Outwardly, before the advent of Shannon's information theory, the central issue of telecommunications is "signal" rather than "information". After that, the central issue of telecommunications is "information" rather than "signal".</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">According to the application history of information concept, nearly all the essential problems behind the concepts of communication, messenger, signal and so on may be information problems. Just as the language problem what we are discussing here, our ultimate goal is to analyze the information.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">For the same reason, I recommend another two papers:</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">1. Do Plants Think? (June 5, 2012, <i>Scientific American</i>)</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:33.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">(</span><span lang="EN-US"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-plants-think-daniel-chamovitz/#rd?sukey=fc78a68049a14bb24ce82efd8ef931e64057ce6142b1f2f7b919612d2b3f42c07f559f5be33be0881613ccfbf5b43c4b"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"></span></a><a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-plants-think-daniel-chamovitz/#rd?sukey=fc78a68049a14bb24ce82efd8ef931e64057ce6142b1f2f7b919612d2b3f42c07f559f5be33be0881613ccfbf5b43c4b" target="_blank">http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-plants-think-daniel-chamovitz/#rd?sukey=fc78a68049a14bb24ce82efd8ef931e64057ce6142b1f2f7b919612d2b3f42c07f559f5be33be0881613ccfbf5b43c4b</a></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:等线">）</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">2. Plants Can Think, Feel and Learn (December 3, 2014, <i>New Scientist</i>)</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:33.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">(</span><span lang="EN-US"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429980-400-root-intelligence-plants-can-think-feel-and-learn"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"></span></a><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429980-400-root-intelligence-plants-can-think-feel-and-learn" target="_blank">http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429980-400-root-intelligence-plants-can-think-feel-and-learn</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">)</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">From which we can judge whether or not a plants informatics can exists.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">Best wishes,</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin-top:4.65pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt">Xueshan</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:等线;color:black"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:fis-bounces@listas.unizar.es"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">fis-</span></a><a href="mailto:bounces@listas.unizar.es">bounces@listas.unizar.es</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> [mailto:</span><span lang="EN-US"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:fis-bounces@listas.unizar.es"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">fis-</span></a><a href="mailto:bounces@listas.unizar.es">bounces@listas.unizar.es</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Sungchul Ji<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, February 8, 2018 9:10 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Francesco Rizzo <</span><span lang="EN-US"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:13francesco.rizzo@gmail.com"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"></span></a><a href="mailto:13francesco.rizzo@gmail.com">13francesco.rizzo@gmail.com</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">>; Terrence W. DEACON <</span><span lang="EN-US"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:deacon@berkeley.edu"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"></span></a><a href="mailto:deacon@berkeley.edu">deacon@berkeley.edu</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Fis, <</span><span lang="EN-US"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"></span></a><a href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es">fis@listas.unizar.es</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Fis] The unification of the theories of information based on the cateogry theory</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Hi Terry, and FISers,</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Can it be that "language metaphor" is akin to a (theoretical) knife that, in the hands of a surgeon, can save lives but, in a wrong hand, can kill?</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">All the best.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Sung</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> Francesco Rizzo <</span><span lang="EN-US"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:13francesco.rizzo@gmail.com"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"></span></a><a href="mailto:13francesco.rizzo@gmail.com">13francesco.rizzo@gmail.com</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, February 8, 2018 2:56:11 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Terrence W. DEACON<br>
<b>Cc:</b> Fis,; Sungchul Ji<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Fis] The unification of the theories of information based on the cateogry theory</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">Caro Terry estensibile a tutti, </span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">è<span lang="EN-US"> sempre un piacere leggerTi e capirTi. La </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222;background:white">general theory of information è preceduta da un sistema (o semiotica) di significazione e seguita da un sistema (o semiotica ) di comunicazione. Tranne che quando si ha un processo comunicativo come il passaggio di un Segnale (che non significa necessariamente 'un segno') da una Fonte, attraverso un Trasmettitore, lungo un Canale, a un Destinatario. In un processo tra macchina e macchina il segnale non ha alcun potere 'significante'. In tal caso non si ha significazione anche se si può dire che si ha passaggio di informazione. Quando il destinatario è un essere umano (e non è necessario che la fonte sia anch'essa un essere umano) si è in presenza di un processo di significazione. Un sistema di significazione è una costruzione semiotica autonoma, indipendente da ogni possibile atto di comunicazione che l'attualizzi. Invece ogni processo di comunicazione tra esseri umani -- o tra ogni tipo di apparato o struttura 'intelligente, sia meccanico che biologico, -- presuppone un sistema di significazione come propria o specifica condizione. In conclusione, è possibile avere una semiotica della significazione indipendente da una semiotica della comunicazione; ma è impossibile stabilire una semiotica della comunicazione indipendente da una semiotica della significazione.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222;background:white">Ho appreso molto da Umberto Eco a cui ho dedicato il capitolo 10. Umberto Eco e il processo di re-interpretazione e re-incantamento della scienza economica (pp. 175-217) di "Valore e valutazioni. La scienza dell'economia o l'economia della scienza" (FrancoAngeli, Milano, 1997). Nello mio stesso libro si trovano:</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222;background:white">- il capitolo 15. Semiotica economico-estimativa (pp. 327-361) che si colloca nel quadro di una teoria globale di tutti i sistemi di significazione e i processi di comunicazione;</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222;background:white">- il sottoparagrafo 5.3.3 La psicologia genetica di Jean Piaget e la neurobiologia di Humberto Maturana e Francesco Varela. una nuova epistemologia sperimentale della qualità e dell'unicità (pp. 120-130).</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222;background:white">Chiedo scusa a Tutti se Vi ho stancati o se ancora una volta il mio scrivere in lingua italiana Vi crea qualche problema. Penso che il dono che mi fate è, a proposito della QUALITA' e dell'UNICITA', molto più grande del (per)dono che Vi chiedo. Grazie.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222;background:white">Un saluto affettuoso.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">2018-02-07 23:02 GMT+01:00 Terrence W. DEACON <<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:deacon@berkeley.edu">deacon@berkeley.edu</a>>:</span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">Dear FISers,</span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">In previous posts I have disparaged using language as the base model for building a general theory of information. </span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">Though I realize that this may seem almost heretical, it is not a claim that all those who use linguistic analogies are wrong, only that it can be causally misleading.</span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">I came to this view decades back in my research into the neurology and evolution of the human language capacity.</span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">And it became an orgnizing theme in my 1997 book The Symbolic Species.</span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">Early in the book I describe what I (and now other evolutionary biologists) have come to refer to as a "porcupine fallacy" in evolutionary thinking.</span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">Though I use it to critique a misleading evolutionary taxonomizing tendency, I think it also applies to biosemiotic and information theoretic thinking as well.</span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">So to exemplify my reasoning (with apologies for quoting myself) I append the following excerpt from the book.</span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">"</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">But there is a serious problem with using language as the model for analyzing other</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">species’ communication in hindsight. It leads us to treat every other form of communication as</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">exceptions to a rule based on the one most exceptional and divergent case. No analytic method</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">could be more perverse. Social communication has been around for as long as animals have</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">interacted and reproduced sexually. Vocal communication has been around at least as long as frogs</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">have croaked out their mating calls in the night air. Linguistic communication was an afterthought,</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">so to speak, a very recent and very idiosyncratic deviation from an ancient and well-established</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">mode of communicating. It cannot possibly provide an appropriate model against which to assess</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">other forms of communication. It is the rare exception, not the rule, and a quite anomalous</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">exception at that. It is a bit like categorizing birds’ wings with respect to the extent they possess or</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">lack the characteristics of penguins’ wings, or like analyzing the types of hair on different mammals</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">with respect to their degree of resemblance to porcupine quills. It is an understandable</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">anthropocentric bias—perhaps if we were penguins or porcupines we might see more typical wings</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">and hair as primitive stages compared to our own more advanced adaptations—but it does more to</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">obfuscate than clarify. Language is a derived characteristic and so should be analyzed as an</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">exception to a more general rule, not vice versa."</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">Of course there will be analogies to linguistic forms.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">This is inevitable, since language emerged from and is supported by a vast nonlinguistic semiotic infrastructure.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">So of course it will inherit much from less elaborated more fundamental precursors. </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">And our familiarity with language will naturally lead us to draw insight from this more familiar realm.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">I just worry that it provides an elaborate procrustean model that assumes what it endeavors to explain.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">Regards to all, Terry</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 11:04 AM, Jose Javier Blanco Rivero <<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:javierweiss@gmail.com">javierweiss@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span></div>
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<div><span lang="EN-US">In principle I agree with Terry. I have been thinking of this, though I am still not able to make a sound formulation of the idea. Still I am afraid that if I miss the chance to make at least a brief formulation of it I will lose the opportunity to make a brainstorming with you. So, here it comes:</span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US">I have been thinking that a proper way to distinguish the contexts in which the concept of information acquires a fixed meaning or the many contexts on which information can be somehow observed, is to make use of the distinction between medium and form as developed by N. Luhmann, D. Baecker and E. Esposito. I have already expressed my opinion in this group that what information is depends on the system we are talking about. But the concept of medium is more especific since a complex system ussualy has many sources and types of information. <br>
So the authors just mentioned, a medium can be broadly defined as a set of loosely coupled elements. No matter what they are. While a Form is a temporary fixed coupling of a limited configuration of those elements. Accordingly, we can be talking about DNA sequences which are selected by RNA to form proteins or to codify a especific instruction to a determinate cell. We can think of atoms forming a specific kind of matter and a specific kind of molecular structure. We can also think of a vocabulary or a set of linguistic conventions making possible a meaningful utterance or discourse. <br>
The idea is that the medium conditions what can be treated as information. Or even better, each type of medium produces information of its own kind. <br>
According to this point of view, information cannot be transmitted. It can only be produced and "interpreted" out of the specific difference that a medium begets between itself and the forms that take shape from it. A medium can only be a source of noise to other mediums. Still, media can couple among them. This means that media can selforganize in a synergetic manner, where they depend on each others outputs or complexity reductions. And this also mean that they do this by translating noise into information. For instance, language is coupled to writing, and language and writing to print. Still oral communication is noisy to written communication. Let us say that the gestures, emotions, entonations, that we make when talking cannot be copied as such into writing. In a similar way, all the social practices and habits made by handwriting were distorted by the introduction of print. From a technical point of view you can codify the same message orally, by writing and by print. Still information and meaning are not the same. You can tell your girlfriend you love her. That interaction face to face where the lovers look into each others eye, where they can see if the other is nervous, is trembling or whatever. Meaning (declaring love and what that implies: marriage, children, and so on) and information (he is being sincere, she can see it in his eye; he brought her to a special place, so he planned it, and so on) take a very singular and untranslatable configuration. If you write a letter you just can say "I love you". You shall write a poem or a love letter. Your beloved would read it alone in her room and she would have to imagine everything you say. And imagination makes information and meaning to articulate quite differently as in oral communication. It is not the same if you buy a love card in the kiosk and send it to her. Maybe you compensate the simplicity of your message by adding some chocolates and flowers. Again, information (jumm, lets see what he bought her) and meaning are not the same. I use examples of social sciences because that is my research field, although I have the intuition that it could also work for natural sciences. </span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US">Best,</span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US">JJ</span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US">El feb 7, 2018 10:47 AM, "Sungchul Ji" <<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:sji@pharmacy.rutgers.edu">sji@pharmacy.rutgers.edu</a>> escribi</span>ó<span lang="EN-US">:</span></div>
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<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Hi FISers,</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">On 10/8/2017, Terry wrote:</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">" </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#212121">So basically, I am advocating an effort to broaden our discussions and recognize that the term information applies in diverse ways to many different contexts. And because of this it is important to indicate the framing, whether physical, formal, biological, phenomenological, linguistic, etc.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#212121">. . . . . . The classic syntax-semantics-pragmatics distinction introduced by Charles Morris has often been cited in this respect, though it too is in my opinion too limited to the linguistic paradigm, and may be misleading when applied more broadly. I have suggested a parallel, less linguistic (and nested in Stan's subsumption sense) way of making the division: i.e. into </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:red">intrinsic, referential, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">and</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:red"> normative analyses/properties of information.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">"</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#212121"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">I agree with Terry's concern about the often overused linguistic metaphor in defining "information". Although the linguistic metaphor has its limitations (as all metaphors do), it nevertheless offers a unique advantage as well, for example, its well-established categories of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:red">functions</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black"> (see the last column in <b>Table 1</b>.) </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#212121"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">The main purpose of this post is to suggest that all the varied theories of information discussed on this list may be viewed as belonging to the same category of ITR (Irreducible Triadic Relation) diagrammatically represented as the 3-node closed network in the first column of</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:red"> </span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">Table 1</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#212121"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</div>
<div><table class="aolmail_MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="background:#E7E6E6;border-collapse:collapse"><tbody><tr><td width="944" colspan="6" valign="top" style="width:467.5pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#222222">Table 1.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#222222"> The postulated universality of ITR (Irreducible Triadic Relation) as manifested in information theory, semiotics, cell language theory, and linguistics.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td></tr><tr style="height:106.85pt"><td width="458" valign="top" style="width:107.9pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-top:none;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt;height:106.85pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#222222">Category Theory</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#222222"><br>
</span></b><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red"> f g</span></i></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red"><br>
</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#222222"> A -----> B ------> C<br>
| ^<br>
| |<br>
|______________|<br>
</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red"> <i>h</i></span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red"> </span></i></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#7030A0">ITR (Irreducible Triadic Relation</span></i><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#7030A0">)</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:62.85pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt;height:106.85pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Deacon</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">’<span lang="EN-US">s theory of information</span></span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Shannon</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">’<span lang="EN-US">s</span></span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Theory of</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">information</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="109" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt;height:106.85pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Peirce</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">’<span lang="EN-US">s theory of signs</span></span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="103" valign="top" style="width:72.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt;height:106.85pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Cell language theory</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="95" valign="top" style="width:89.75pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt;height:106.85pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Human language<br>
(<span style="color:red">Function</span>)</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">A</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:62.85pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Intrinsic </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">information</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Source</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Object</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Nucleotides*/<br>
Amion acids</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="95" valign="top" style="width:89.75pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Letters<br>
(<span style="color:red">Building blocks</span>)</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">B</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:62.85pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Referential </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">information</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Message</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="109" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Sign</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="103" valign="top" style="width:72.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Proteins</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="95" valign="top" style="width:89.75pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Words<br>
(<span style="color:red">Denotation</span>)</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">C</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:62.85pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Normative </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">information</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Receiver</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Interpretant</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Metabolomes<br>
(Totality of cell metabolism)</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="95" valign="top" style="width:89.75pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Systems of words<br>
(<span style="color:red">Decision making & Reasoning</span>)</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td></tr><tr><td width="458" valign="top" style="width:107.9pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-top:none;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red">f</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:62.85pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">?</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Encoding</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="109" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Sign production</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="103" valign="top" style="width:72.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Physical laws</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="95" valign="top" style="width:89.75pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Second articulation</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td></tr><tr><td width="458" valign="top" style="width:107.9pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-top:none;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red">g</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:62.85pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">?</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Decoding</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Sign interpretation</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="103" valign="top" style="width:72.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Evoutionary selection</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">First and Third articulation</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td></tr><tr><td width="458" valign="top" style="width:107.9pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-top:none;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red">h</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:62.85pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">?</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="89" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Information flow</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="109" valign="top" style="width:67.5pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Information flow</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
</td><td width="103" valign="top" style="width:72.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US">Inheritance</span></div>
</td><td width="95" valign="top" style="width:89.75pt;border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:2.9pt 5.75pt 2.9pt 5.75pt">
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Grounding/</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xmsonormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt">Habit</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US">Scale</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US">Micro-Macro?</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US">Macro</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US">Macro</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US">Micro</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-US">Macro</span></b><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#212121"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">*There may be more than one genetic alphabet of 4 nucleotides. According to the "multiple genetic alphabet hypothesis', there are n genetic alphabets, each consisting of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:red">4^n letters</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">, each of which in turn consisting of</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:red"> n nucleotides</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">. In this view, the classical genetic alphabet is just one example of the n alphabets, i.e., the one with n = 1. When n = 3, for example, we have the so-called 3rd-order genetic alphabet with 4^3 = 64 letters each consisting of 3 nucleotides, resulting in the familiar codon table. Thus, the 64 genetic codons are not words as widely thought (including myself until recently) but letters! It then follows that </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:red">proteins are words and metabolic pathways are sentences</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">. Finally, the transient network of metbolic pathways (referred to as "hyperstructures" by V. Norris in 1999 and as "hypermetabolic pathways" by me more recently) correspond to texts essential to represent arguement/reasoning/computing. What is most exciting is the recent discovery in my lab at Rutgers that the so-called "Planck-Shannon plots" of mRNA levels in living cells can identify function-dependent "hypermetabolic pathways" underlying breast cancer before and after drug treatment (manuscript under review). </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">Any comments, questions, or suggestions would be welcome.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black"> </span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">Sung</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span class="aolmail_m-1310756314569834306xhoenzb"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#888888">-- </span></span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#888888">Professor Terrence W. Deacon<br>
University of California, Berkeley</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
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