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body { font-family: Segoe UI; font-size: 12pt; }</style></head><body><div>Dear colleagues,</div><div><br /></div><div>It sounds a bit as a continuation of the discussions among the "scavants" at the Univerrsity of Coimbra about whether we live in the best of all possible worlds; see Voltaire's Candide. </div><div><br /></div><div>Did the snake talk to Eve or should we take this metaphorically? Does GTI/Sinterclaus/God exist or not? In my opinion, one were advised to proceed to empirical research. Some questions are then more fruitful than others. Shannon's theory of information can, for example, be used as entropy statistics. It thus offers to combine a theoretical perspective and a methodology. Without developing the latter, however, the discussion becomes very abstract and philosophical.</div><div><br /></div><div>The linking pin, in my opinion, is the notion of probability. A probability distribution contains an uncertainty which can be measured in bits. A one-dimensional probability distribution can be represented as a vector (or a set of relations); a two-dimensional as a matrix. The second dimension can be used for the decomposition in terms of principal components (eigenvectors). A three-dimensional probability distribution--a cube of information--can contain local minima and trajectories in an Euclidean space. A four-dimensional one represents a hyper-geometry containing next-order regimes as structures of (globalized instead of stabilized) expectations. </div><div><br /></div><div>While instantiations can be described in three dimensions, self-organization (autopoiesis, nisus) requires this extension to four dimenisons of the probability distribution. The Shannon formula set no limits on the number of dimensions and thus one obtains a rich researchable domain. As some of you know, my interest nowadays is particularly in the measurement and calculus of redundancy (new options). But that is only one of the options for empirical research.</div><div><br /></div><div>Best,</div><div>Loet</div>
<div><br /></div><div>PS. Sinterklaas is a Dutch fest on the evening of December 5, when a bishop arrives from Spain with presents for the children. Most children lose their belief in his existence at the age of six or seven. L.</div><div><br /></div><div id="signature_old"><div id="xdff2f36c3b854f9"><div id="x775eaf3ae7f6460082dcdda3faf877c6"><div><div><br /></div><div id="signature_old"><div id="x920d19d74fc84b0"><div id="x337b22579712426abf55c20f258d0a74">
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<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">Loet
Leydesdorff <o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">Professor emeritus,
University of Amsterdam<br />
Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)<o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net" title="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">loet@leydesdorff.net </span></a></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">; </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.leydesdorff.net/" title="http://www.leydesdorff.net/"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">http://www.leydesdorff.net/</span></a></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D"> <br />
</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Associate Faculty, </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/"><span style="font-size:9.0pt">SPRU, </span></a></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">University of Sussex; <o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Guest Professor </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.zju.edu.cn/english/"><span style="font-size:9.0pt">Zhejiang Univ.</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">, Hangzhou; Visiting Professor, </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.istic.ac.cn/Eng/brief_en.html"><span style="font-size:9.0pt">ISTIC, </span></a></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Beijing;<o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Visiting Fellow, </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/"><span style="font-size:
9.0pt">Birkbeck</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">,
University of London; <o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
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<div>------ Original Message ------</div>
<div>From: "Xueshan Yan" <<a href="mailto:yxs@pku.edu.cn">yxs@pku.edu.cn</a>></div>
<div>To: "FIS Group" <<a href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es">fis@listas.unizar.es</a>></div>
<div>Cc: "Annette Grathoff" <<a href="mailto:annette.grathoff@is4si.org">annette.grathoff@is4si.org</a>>; "Søren Brier" <<a href="mailto:sb.ikk@cbs.dk">sb.ikk@cbs.dk</a>>; "Mark Burgin" <<a href="mailto:markburg@cs.ucla.edu">markburg@cs.ucla.edu</a>>; "Pedro C. Marijuán" <<a href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es">pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</a>>; "Terrence Deacon" <<a href="mailto:deacon@berkeley.edu">deacon@berkeley.edu</a>>; "Joseph Brenner" <<a href="mailto:joe.brenner@bluewin.ch">joe.brenner@bluewin.ch</a>></div>
<div>Sent: 1/20/2019 4:17:39 AM</div>
<div>Subject: [Fis] An Important Dialog</div><div><br /></div>
<div id="x11d0a83376054bd" style="text-justify-trim:punctuation"><blockquote cite="000001d4b06e$b3205a00$19610e00$@pku.edu.cn" type="cite" class="cite2">
<div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dear FIS Colleagues,<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:21.0pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">A few days ago, among some of active IS4SI Board members, we have a very constructive discussion about Mark Burgin’s General Theory of Information (GTI, based on his book <i>Theory of Information: Fundamentality, Diversity and Unification</i>, 2010), the discussion was in progress mainly between Joseph and Mark and focused on the following three points:<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-para-margin-bottom:.5gd;text-indent:24.0pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">1. Is information a phenomena or a reality?<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-para-margin-bottom:.5gd;text-indent:24.0pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">2. Are the mathematical methods Mark developed useful?<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-para-margin-bottom:.5gd;text-indent:24.0pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">3. Where is the position of a GTI?<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:24.0pt;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">I have made a commitment that I will summarize the main arguments of the discussion then. The following are the gist of them and please give enough attention to.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Best wishes,<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-para-margin-top:.3gd;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Xueshan<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-para-margin-top:.3gd;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-para-margin-top:.3gd;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Century",serif">The main points of the arguments<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-para-margin-top:.3gd;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Century",serif"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></b></p><table class="32593" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin-left:63.55pt;border-collapse:collapse;border:none"><tbody><tr><td width="150" valign="top" style="width:213.9pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;text-indent:0cm"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Mark’s gist</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:3.6pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:12.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-margin-top-alt:.3gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom:0cm;mso-para-margin-left:12.0pt;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">1. (My) GTI consists of two parts - ontology of information and axiology of information. The mathematical component of this theory is mainly ontological based on mathematical models of information as operators and functors. The system of ontological and axiological principles of the GTI provides unified foundations for information studies, though it is difficult to understand.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">2. Information is a phenomenon. It's neither quantitative nor qualitative. It's people (and sometimes machines) who ascribe qualitative or quantitative measures to information. My GTI does acknowledge qualitative information but only existence of qualitative and quantitative measures.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">3. My GTI does not define Information in term of bit, bit is a unit of a particular measure of information only in some special information theory.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">4. My GTI defines information as a real essence. Although many think that there are only one reality – physical things, actually there are different realities.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">5. My GTI allows specification to all existing information theories. It provides constructive tools for doing such specifications and building special information theories without including these theories into its scope.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">6. The theories of Shannon, Fisher or Bar-Hillel, etc. are the varieties of GTI, together all these theories form information science.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">7. My GTI forms a unified foundation of information science and can be used for studies of actually any kind of information including ethical information or semantic information, for which meaning is the defining feature.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p></td><td width="169" valign="top" style="width:207.4pt;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-left:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;text-indent:0cm"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Joseph’s gist<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:3.6pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:12.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-margin-top-alt:.3gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom:0cm;mso-para-margin-left:12.0pt;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">1. There is no role for the information what Mark stated, including qualitative, non-measurable and/or non-quantitative one. It is a lower ontological level.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">2. A GTI should not define information in terms of bit.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">3. The question of “What information is” implies a substance rather than dynamic process ontology.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">4. If information is only a phenomenon, I cannot imagine a ‘measure’ operating on an appearance.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">5. Mark’s GTI tries to explain “<b>What Information Is”</b> but without a discussion.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">6. If information by Mark’s GTI consideration cannot be a process or have processual characteristics, it cannot be ‘general’.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">7. What Mark have defined is a THEORY OF GENERAL INFORMATION but not a GENERAL THEORY OF INFORMATION.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">8. Mark’s GTI extracts the general characteristics of information processes independently of their substratum of physical (energetic) properties, all of the mathematical aspects of what he has called a GTI then apply to that abstraction, and a ‘meaning’ of those aspects exists, it is tautological.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">9. What is ontologically primary, then, are the phenomena that have meaning – the information necessary for the survival of living beings and for their reproduction.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">10. According to Mark, Meaning will be the foundation of all theories of information.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">11. And Mark’s GTI will become a Meta-Theory of Information, a theory of Theories of Information.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-para-margin-top:.3gd;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Century",serif"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:21.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:DengXian"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p></div></blockquote></div>
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