Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA01399 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 15 May 2001 19:32:58 +0100 From: <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 13:34:50 -0500 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Information Message-ID: <3B01307A.29336.24A773@localhost> In-reply-to: <20010515085113.B474@ii01.org> References: <20010512183347.AAA26657@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.72]>; from wade_smith@harvard.edu on Sat, May 12, 2001 at 02:33:48PM -0400 X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 15 May 2001, at 8:51, Robin Faichney wrote:
> On Sat, May 12, 2001 at 02:33:48PM -0400, Wade T.Smith wrote:
> > Hi Robin Faichney -
> >
> > >The "best" anything, unless
> > >what's "better" is entirely explicit and agreed, is about
> > >valuation, a matter of opinion. If you don't agree, let's hear
> > >your case.
> >
> > Look, I totally agree that _anything_ that _anyone_ has _ever_ said
> > at _any_ time is _fiction_- and thus opinion is a great deal of it,
> > and that the best thing that anyone could ever say would also be
> > open to opinion, but the _best way to use a word_ ain't, and never
> > was, a matter of _opinion_. It has always and shall ever more
> > remain, a matter of consensus.
>
> I belong to a creative writing group that meets weekly, and almost
> every week, I'd say, there's at least one example of a word that is
> used unusually, where that use conveys exactly what the writer
> intended.
>
> However, I'm not going to pursue this point, because to do so would
> imply that my use of "information" is non-consensual, which it is not.
> I use the word in a number of ways, almost all of which are perfectly
> consensual within the relevant context, and only one of which is a
> slight neologism, which is a very clear extension of a
> well-established usage, and which carries a qualifier: "physical
> information".
>
In communication theory, information consists of a message which
is encoded in a particular code and conveyed, from a sender to a
receiver, by a particular carrier, which is the physical instantiation
of the information. In this sense, all information has physical
instantiation, in light waves or pressure differences in the air and so
on. This DOES NOT MEAN that mere physical structure is
information, in the absence of any apprehension of it and
intentional signification granted to it.
> --
> Robin Faichney
> Get your Meta-Information from http://www.ii01.org
> (CAUTION: contains philosophy, may cause heads to spin)
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
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> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
>
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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