<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:SimSun;
panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1;}
@font-face
{font-family:Century;
panose-1:2 4 6 4 5 5 5 2 3 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:DengXian;
panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1;}
@font-face
{font-family:"&\#23435";}
@font-face
{font-family:SimSun;
panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1;}
@font-face
{font-family:DengXian;
panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-indent:10.0pt;
line-height:16.0pt;
mso-line-height-rule:exactly;
font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:SimSun;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.msonormal0, li.msonormal0, div.msonormal0
{mso-style-name:msonormal;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0cm;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0cm;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:DengXian;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:DengXian;}
/* Page Definitions */
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body style="text-justify-trim:punctuation" link="#0563C1"
vlink="#954F72" text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" lang="ZH-CN">
<div class="WordSection1"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"
lang="EN-US">Dear FISers,</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-US"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-US">The Berkeley IS4SI
2019 event is approaching fast. I am re-sending the announcement
in a separate mail so that everybody, in the extent of his/her
possibilities, may help to disseminate it.</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-US">One of the subjects
that some presenters will discuss, no doubt about that, is the
pertinence or plausibility of general or unifying theories of
information. I am copying below the message from Xueshan, some
weeks ago, summarizing some discussions between Mark and Joseph
on that subject.<br>
Of course, many other voices can be heard, and that is the gist
of the present message. To ad some piquancy, I cannot help but
reminding the quip attributed to von Neumann on Prigogine's
general theory of non-equilibrium systems, for him: "the
non-elephant theory." Per Bak picked the quip as follows: </span><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-US"><br>
</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-US"><i>“…On the other
hand, no general theory for large non-equilibrium systems
exists. The legendary Hungarian mathematician John Von Neuman
once referred to the theory of non-equilibrium systems as the
“theory of non-elephants” meaning there could be no unique
theory of such a vast area of science.” </i>(Per Bak, How
Nature Works)</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-US"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-US">Best wishes</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-US">--Pedro<i><br>
</i> </span>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">-----------------------------------------------------------------<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal"><b><font
size="+1"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">[Fis] An Important Dialog</span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><font size="+2"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Xueshan Yan</span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><font size="+2"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:yxs@pku.edu.cn">yxs@pku.edu.cn</a><br>
</span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><font size="+2"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><br>
</span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Dear FIS Colleagues,<o:p></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
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></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
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">1. Is information a phenomena
or a reality?<o:p></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
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">2. Are the mathematical
methods Mark developed useful?<o:p></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
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">3. Where is the position of a
GTI?<o:p></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
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="text-indent:0cm;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Best wishes,<o:p></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
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Xueshan<o:p></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
style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </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
style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">
</span><b><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Century",serif"
lang="EN-US">The main points of the arguments<o:p></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
style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Century",serif"
lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<table class="32593"
style="margin-left:63.55pt;border-collapse:collapse;border:none"
cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width:213.9pt;border:solid windowtext
1.0pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt" valign="top"
width="150">
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="text-align:center;text-indent:0cm" align="center"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Mark’s gist</span><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><o:p></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
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">6. <span
style="color:black">The theories of Shannon, Fisher
or Bar-Hillel, etc. are the varieties of GTI, </span>together
all these theories form information science.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">7. My GTI forms a
unified foundation of information science and can be
used for studies of actually any kind of information
including<span style="color:black"> ethical</span>
information or semantic information, for which<span
style="color:black"> meaning i</span>s the defining
feature.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:207.4pt;border:solid windowtext
1.0pt;border-left:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"
valign="top" width="169">
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="text-align:center;text-indent:0cm" align="center"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Joseph’s gist<o:p></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
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">2. A GTI should not
define information in terms of bit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">3. The question of
“What information is” implies a substance rather than
dynamic process ontology.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">4. If information is
only a phenomenon, I cannot imagine a ‘measure’
operating on an appearance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">5. Mark’s GTI tries to
explain “<b>What Information Is”</b> but without a
discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">6. If information by
Mark’s GTI consideration cannot be a process or have
processual characteristics, it cannot be ‘general’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">7. What Mark have
defined is a THEORY OF GENERAL INFORMATION but not a
GENERAL THEORY OF INFORMATION.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">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></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">10. According to Mark,
Meaning will be the foundation of all theories of
information.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-indent:-12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">11. And Mark’s GTI
will become a Meta-Theory of Information, a theory of
Theories of Information.<o:p></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
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Century",serif"
lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:21.0pt"><span
style="font-family:DengXian" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br>
<table style="border-top: 1px solid #D3D4DE;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 55px; padding-top: 18px;"><a
href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient"
target="_blank"><img
src="https://ipmcdn.avast.com/images/icons/icon-envelope-tick-round-orange-animated-no-repeat-v1.gif"
alt="" style="width: 46px; height: 29px;" height="29"
width="46"></a></td>
<td style="width: 470px; padding-top: 17px; color: #41424e;
font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Libre de virus. <a
href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient"
target="_blank" style="color: #4453ea;">www.avast.com</a>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<a href="#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2" width="1"
height="1"> </a></div>
</body>
</html>