<div dir="auto"></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>De: <strong class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">Jose Javier Blanco Rivero</strong> <span dir="auto"><<a href="mailto:javierweiss@gmail.com">javierweiss@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: mar, sep 15, 2020 12:14<br>Subject: Re: [Fis] The 10 Principles<br>To: Pedro C. Marijuan <<a href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es">pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</a>><br></div><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div>Dear Pedro,</div><div>Dear FISers Colleagues,</div><div><br></div><div>In general terms, I agree with both principles. However, there are two issues I would like to raise. The first is a caveat referring to a source of potential criticism (a). And the second is a distinction with the potential to contribute to both principles (b).</div><div><br></div><div>(a) The following statement "<i><b>...the distinction term refers to the capabilities of the subject or informational entity that is engaged in the exploration of events or signals in its immediate environment.</b></i>" implies some ontological and epistemological principles that should be avoided (in fact, I think we should avoid ontology and epistemology altogether, but that is another discussion). The vulnerability of the former statement consists in that it can only account for the "nature" of the <b><i>distinction</i></b> but in metaphysical terms. I mean, if you ask: What sort of thing is a distinction so that it belongs to a subject's "capabilities" and at the same time it can be extracted by this very subject from its environment? I cannot think but of a sort of substratum involving, embracing, circumscribing both, the subject and its environment. And if the nature of this substratum were to be accounted for, we would end up in an endless recursive loop.</div><div>I believe that a distinction is an inherently associative operation which can only be accounted for without contradictions at the abstraction level of the system (be it social, biological or whatever). Distinctions can be performed as system's operations because of the differences between system and environment, namely, because there is a difference between self-organization of whatever kind (thermodynamical, biological, sociological) and a complex environment populated by every sort of perturbation. We can think of differences in pressure and temperature between a biological boby and the atmosphere, we can think of differences in prices that drive investors from one country to another, we can think of differences in legal regulations from one country to another that allow the formation of dubious international commerce networks, and so forth. <br></div><div>But how can we explain the differences of differences, I mean how differences are themselves organized so that we can straightforwardly distinguish between the realms of the physical, the chemical, the biological, the social. I believe that the distinction between medium and environment can help us out. And that is my second point.</div><div><br></div><div>(b) The concept of medium sheds light on the issue we raised before. How are the differences of differences structured? This question equals that of how redundancy is organized, and as is well known, redundancy is related to information. I argue that information is relative to a determined medium; that media, by themselves, are information sources (I can provide you with better arguments if you follow this link: <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040162518316160" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040162518316160</a>). Information in the medium of public opinion is different from information in the medium of power (see Luhmann's book entitled Power for this -there is an English translation along with his writings about Trust).<span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-GB"> <font size="2">Information in the public opinion is guided by the concept of "news", novelty and even scandal. However from the standpoint of some power structure, only the differences in resources and influence between the members of the power network (or power circuitry as I like to call it) are informative. Power and public opinion organize redundancy in different ways although both of them "live" within the environment of the political system.</font> <font size="2">I could go on, but the subject is rather large</font>. <font size="2">In short, there are environments, but the environment describes in very broad terms the constraints surrounding some system. However, media are a much more specific constraint quite relevant for the study of information.</font></span></div><div><font size="2"><span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">Best,</span></font></div><div><font size="2"><span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></font></div><div><span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-GB"><font size="2">JJ</font><br></span></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">El mar., 15 sept. 2020 a las 9:38, Pedro C. Marijuan (<<a href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</a>>) escribió:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Dear FIS Colleagues,</p>
<p>As promised I bring a new version of the 10 info principles
(IPs). Just the first two ones.</p>
<p>Previously I briefly comment on Marcus. My impression is that,
notwithstanding an attractive & suggestive couple of points,
what he is crafting somehow reminds me the Peircean
reinterpretation of Laws of Nature. Given that only Objects and
Interactions --Os and Ss-- are considered, and this is done
putting together into the same sac fermions, genes, agents,
people, etc. the origins of meaning in the "animate" are
automatically lost, unless we assume a pan-pysicalist-pan-psychist
stance, I think. So I would have trouble with this point as such
(one has to see the whole scheme and how "bio" or "neuro" are
entered specifically). The B principle can be taken with less
caveats, I think, and it looks bold and very direct although
perhaps it is rather linked to the anthropocentric view &
agency (like Yixin's views, at least in my opinion). Of course, I
do not pretend to get the two beers, for in any case I prefer wine
& tapas... once the rest of the points are seen.<br>
</p>
<p>Then I return to my own IPs. I had the opportunity to discuss
them in the Saturday Conference organized by our colleague Wukun
plus Yixin and others. An interesting experience. As you have seen
in Krassimir's and Marcin's messages, hopefully we will have a
specific FIS participation in IS4SI virtual meeting... So here
there are those two points:<br>
</p>
<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14pt"><b><span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-US">1. Information is
distinction on an <i>adjacent
</i>difference.</span></b></p>
<b>
</b>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14pt"><b><span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-US">2. Information
processes consist in organized action
upon differences collected onto structures, patterns,
sequences, messages, or
flows.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14pt"><span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-GB">Here, the <b>distinction</b>
term refers to the capabilities of the subject or
informational entity that is engaged
in the exploration of events or signals in its immediate
environment. The subject
extracts logical distinctions out from the differences in the
materiality of
those events. A minimalist scheme of distinctional logic based
on
multidimensional partitions can be applied, as was discussed
by this author (Marijuán
et al., 1998). It is based on the logic of multidimensional
partitions developed
by Karl Javorsky, explaining how finally a consistent skeleton
of logical “distinctions”
may be obtained out from the elements composing the difference
detected or interacted by the
subject.</span></p>
<span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-GB">The guiding idea is
that, by following that logic (in
itself based on a few principles), one can apply
“multidimensional partitions”
as formal descriptors of the discrete messages or the signalling
flows. And that
skeleton of partitions is what “receiving the information”
preliminarily implies along this restricted communication
logics. It is about how the informational
entity may create streams of relationships associated to the
material
differences in the impinging signalling flows or discrete
messages. </span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14pt"><span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-GB">The <b>adjacent</b>
term refers to the physical contact to be achieved between the
signalling event
and the subject, and the need by the latter of counting with
sensory elements
or with excitatory surfaces to be physically impinged upon by
the incoming
signals. In living cells, information arrives via particles,
molecules, atoms,
photons, or phonons that impinge on specialized receptors. It
is the same in
all sensory surfaces of nervous systems.</span><span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-GB"> Increasing the
adjacency, extending the territory
covered by the communication processes with the environment is
a formidable
drive of biological evolution: cellular pili, flagella, cilia,
arborisation of
axons and dendrites, the neuronal multiplicity of sensors and
receptors,
specialized maps, sensing modalities, etc. By all means,
adjacency is increased
to the maximum supported by the biological system. We may
notice something similar in human societies
about the artifacts, means of communication, and
scientific-technological
apparatuses that transcend the immediate adjacency of subjects
in the complex
information flows of contemporary societies. By transcending
the limits of
immediate space-time adjacency, and creating <b>channels</b>
that carry differences to
build ad hoc distinctions, subjects may perform a myriad of
further distinction
extractions and cognitive operations (think of telescopes,
microscopes, telegraph, etc.). By the way, curiously "channel"
in the Shanonian scheme represents also that which brings
information to the adjacency of the receiver. <br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14pt"><span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-GB">By the way: addenda to
pont two for Krassimir: <b>data result from the measurement
of an action</b> (or of an aggregate of multiple actions, or
surrogates of actions).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14pt"><span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-GB">Best wishes to all</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14pt"><span style="font-size:12pt" lang="EN-GB">--Pedro</span><span lang="EN-GB"></span><span lang="EN-GB"></span><font size="+3"><span lang="EN-GB"><br>
</span></font></p>
<font size="+3">
</font><p></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre cols="72">--
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
<a href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</a>
<a href="http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/</a>
------------------------------------------------- </pre>
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