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.quote { margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; border-left: 5px #ebebeb solid; padding-left: 0.3em; }--></style></head><body><div>Dear Joe and colleagues, </div>
<div id="xca377599eb614c8"><blockquote cite="811828075.13313.1645893409033@bluewin.ch" type="cite" class="cite2"><p class="MsoHeader" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans", sans-serif;">If you will allow my view at least for discussion, you will see
that it has the dynamics necessary to handle more complex cognitive phenomena in
human and social systems. These would include not only recursion but stasis and
regression. Identification from an informational standpoint of the “molecules”
undergoing change in the corresponding processes could follow a model very
similar to yours.</span></p></blockquote><font face="Lucida Sans, sans-serif"><span>"very similar" is not sufficient for making an inference. The dissimilarities may also be important. </span></font></div><div id="xca377599eb614c8"><font face="Lucida Sans, sans-serif"><span><br /></span></font></div><div id="xca377599eb614c8"><font face="Lucida Sans, sans-serif"><span>It seems to me that one can use the similarities as heuristics. The formal (non-substantive) models enable us to move from one domain to another, such as from biology to chemistry or even economics. For example, bifurcations can be expected to occur in the various domains. The reaction-diffusion mechanism can be considered as a common framework for understanding this, because this mechanism is mathematically framed. The substantive differences can also be studied. </span></font></div><div id="xca377599eb614c8"><font face="Lucida Sans, sans-serif"><span><br /></span></font></div><div id="xca377599eb614c8"><font face="Lucida Sans, sans-serif"><span>For information theory itself, this means that we can distinguish between special theories--e.g., economics or biology--of information and one or more formal theories. The latter abstract from the substance and are dimensionless (bits). The former are dimensionalized: for example, Joule/Kelvin for the case of classical physics. One can distinguish between domains in terms of what is communicated: for example, molecules in the case of biology or atoms in the case of chemistry. But these remain special theories. The notion of a general theory (Bertalanffy) is no longer considered possible since the center is empty. Instead of "meta" one could use the Greek "epi": the formal theory matches to some extent the special theories. But puzzles remain; fortunately!</span></font></div><div id="xca377599eb614c8"><font face="Lucida Sans, sans-serif"><span><br /></span></font></div><div id="xca377599eb614c8"><font face="Lucida Sans, sans-serif"><span>Best,</span></font></div><div id="xca377599eb614c8"><font face="Lucida Sans, sans-serif"><span>Loet <br /></span></font><blockquote cite="811828075.13313.1645893409033@bluewin.ch" type="cite" class="cite2"><p class="MsoHeader" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Sans",sans-serif;
color:black"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans", sans-serif;">Thank you again and best wishes,</span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Sans",sans-serif;
color:black"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> Joseph</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p><br /></blockquote></div>
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