Re: Abstractism

From: Dace (edace@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Feb 03 2002 - 17:56:26 GMT

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From: "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Abstractism
Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 09:56:26 -0800
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    From: Joe Dees

    > >Physics deals with the structure of matter as well as its components.
    > >There's no physical structure called "information" or "representation."
    > >Electrons and quarks are contained in atomic structures. Atoms are
    > >contained in chemical structures. Those are the only kind of structures
    > >you'll find in the ink on a page.
    > >
    > Information is in configuration, when it is, because we intentionally
    arrange the configurations in order to put the information there for the
    purposes of communicating it to others.
    >>>

    We "intentionally arrange the configurations" so that the intended meaning will appear in the mind of the reader. At no point do we endow the ink or the pixels with some sort of mystical property called "meaning" or "information." Meaning is in the mind. To find it in the material world is to engage in a kind of physicalist superstition, like imagining you've seen a ghost or the Virgin Mary.

    Ted

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