Message-Id: <199904212348.TAA03038@mail2.lig.bellsouth.net>
From: "Joe E. Dees" <joedees@bellsouth.net>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 18:50:47 -0500
Subject: Re: Information basics 2
Date sent: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 22:56:21 +0100
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Information basics 2
Send reply to: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Richard writes
> >>Robin wrote:
> >>
> >><<In absolute terms, all descriptions made and used by people are
> >>subjective, while only the information actually embodied by a physical
> >>thing is objective. All the information with which we deal is
> >>subjective, however closely it might approximate to information that is
> >>actually "out there", in the form of physical reality.>>
> >>
> >"descriptions made and used by people" sure sounds like a subset of
> >"information actually embodied by a physical thing" to me.
>
> OK. Of course, you can say that people in some sense "embody" the
> information they use, but I'm using that word in a slightly more
> restricted sense. Human bodies are physical things, and so embody
> objective information. The information we use, though (or which uses
> us), which is processed by our nervous systems, is subjective. I
> wouldn't say we embody that, because our possession of it (or vice
> versa) could be very fleeting.
>
May I suggest that the distinction you are here seeking is that
between presentation, an unmediated perception of the object
itself, and representation, or a perception of a sign or symbol which
stands for the object (mediates between the object and the
subject).
>
> Given the paucity of response, I guess this stuff was less than
> pellucid, but I'm more than willing to try to elucidate, and there's
> more explanation available via the link in the sig.
> --
> Robin Faichney
> Visit The Conscious Machine at
> http://www.conscious-machine.com
>
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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