Dear Pedro, I what sense, exactly, is this proposal "bio-inspired?" Is there some common uniquely biophysical feature to which you appeal? Item 3, that might appeal to this claim, is too general to succeed.
With respect, Steven -- Institute for Advanced Science & Engineering http://IASE.info http://senses.info On Oct 27, 2009, at 8:20 AM, "Pedro C. Marijuan" <[email protected] > wrote: > Dear All, > > My impression after the recent --and intense-- exchange on "knowledge > definition" is that the discussion should also be centered in the > quest > for a new conceptual information cluster, globally, rather than trying > to achieve consensus upon a single term, or proceeding term by term. > Well, here is my particular bio-inspired proposal: > > 1. INFORMATION > Which has to be treated as "distinction on the adjacent". Temporarily > leaving aside the adjacency part, a discussion on the "grammar of > distinctions" is needed. Thus, a possible concrete case could be > color > vision. How do we build the panorama of color nuances out from the > different types of cones activated in the retina? If the idea of > multidimensional partitions can be applied, this will be an excellent > test on how far we can go along that road. Colors arisen from > combinations of colors should respond to, and be captured by, the > partitional treatment (including the curious "disappearance" of > colors...). > > 2. INFORMATION PROCEEDING > The central idea is that, actually, information is never "processed", > except in the realm of artificial systems. As natural information > becomes internalized by the living subject, it is mingled with the > internal life processes, and proceeds up to the point of > irretrievability. Thus, information always changes the subject (no > such > thing as a "separate" observer in the information realm). Those > changes > in the subject, echoing late Tom Stonier in this very list (in the > 90's) > posting on "semantic metabolism", would include further aspects about > meaning generation, response, relevance to the life cycle, closure, > and > fitness. > > 3. KNOWLEDGE ACCRETION & RECOMBINATION > Two exemplary cases might be envisioned for both accretion and > recombination: protein domains in the prokaryotic world, and the > disciplinary knowledge of our societies. Perhaps, at the time being, > the > social discussion looks more "timely". The point is that past > conceptions of knowledge do not help in the dramatic knowledge > recombination efforts needed to confront global problems of today. Per > se, the idealizations of the scientific method eliminate the social > process of accretion of specialized knowldege and the later > social-institutional recombination of the isolated disciplines, which > are often seen as mere pragmatic, "dirty", pork-barrel matters... a > new > science, information science, with a completely different abstraction > procedure is needed (no rhetoric!) > > best greetings > > Pedro > > PS. Finally I am working on a web site (awfully in construction yet), > see below. Comments will be appreciated. > > -- > > ------------------------------------------------- > Pedro C. Marijuán > Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group > Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud > Avda. Gómez Laguna, 25, Pl. 11ª > 50009 Zaragoza. España / Spain > Telf: 34 976 71 3526 (& 6818) Fax: 34 976 71 5554 > [email protected] > http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/ > ------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > fis mailing list > [email protected] > https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis _______________________________________________ fis mailing list [email protected] https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
