Message-Id: <346200F8.16E3@rug.ac.be>
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 1997 09:40:08 -0800
From: Mario Vaneechoutte <Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.be>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: More on information
Ton Maas wrote:
>
> Bob Grimes said:
> >Certainly, even if the meme exists only in "seed" structure external to
> >the organism's cognitive milieu, i.e., oral history, written history,
> >art forms, etc., there is a "meme continuum" where memes are
> >continuously in process of being stored or dormant, transmitted,
> >received, and retransmitted.
>
> I admit to singing an old tune, but this brings us back to an issue that
> for me is still deeply problematic about memetics: the fact that
> "information" as it is currently defined, actually represents a case of
> misplaced concreteness or reification. Any reference to "information" as
> being stored or "dormant" ignores the fact that it informs only as it is
> being received/processed by somebody (or some thing with adequate
> capabilities). Information is therefore processual, relational and
> interactive and cannot be stored as such. Whatever is stored, is only the
> "carcass" of the original information (freely adapted from Ben Whorf). Or
> am I overlooking something?
No, relevant question if you ask me.
May I refer again to what Luc Claeys has to say about this.
He writes about 'instantiations of information'
http://www.club.innet.be/~claeys/boi/boi.html
Mario Vaneechoutte
Laboratory Bacteriology & Virology
Blok A, De Pintelaan 185
University Hospital Ghent
Belgium 9000 Ghent
Tel: +32 9 240 36 92
Fax: +32 9 240 36 59
E-mail: Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.be
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