Dear Joe - thanks for the honourable mention - I am in fact working my way thru Terry's masterpiece (on p. 200) and agree with your evaluation of it. I am making careful notes which I will be happy to share with the FIS team. Best wishes to all - Bob
On 2012-02-28, at 1:16 PM, joe.bren...@bluewin.ch wrote: > Dear Pedro, John and Colleagues, > > The article by Terrence Deacon in the book referred to by John is entitled > "What is Missing from Theories of Information?" and, as Pedro has indicated, > it and Deacon's new book Incomplete Nature. How Mind Emerged from Matter may > be major new additions to the foundations of information. Among other things, > far from supporting "it from bit", Deacon provides expert arguments against > this position, adopted indeed in a majority of the other articles in the > Davies compendium. > > Deacon's key point is that what is missing from theories is operation in > reality of constraints, extending their role discussed previously by Stuart > Kauffmann, Bob Logan, Bob Ulanowicz, Stan and John himself and focussing on > what, as the consequence of constraints, is absent in information and other > complex processes. > > I hope that many colleagues will make the effort to access this material so > that we may achieve a critical mass for its discussion and evaluation. > > Best wishes, > > > ----Ursprüngliche Nachricht---- > Von: pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es > Datum: 21.02.2012 18:02 > An: > Betreff: [Fis] stuff and non-stuff > > Dear FIS colleagues, > > John's comments below on that book are quite interesting. Most approaches to > information rely on "stuff" and "organization of stuff" --information is > inevitably physical, as Rolf Landauer put long ago. However, "non stuff" and > "organization of "non stuff" might be taken as central ideas too, e.g. in > Deacon's approach --through the notion of absence. Deacon is one of the main > contributors of that book, and author of another very recent info book that > has already been referred in this list, by Joseph I think. > > My further point, to connect with an unfinished message on info science > teaching some weeks ago, is that genuine informational entities, those > capable of making "distinctions" that are used for self-constructing in > permanent communication with the medium, deserve a special status within the > whole info science studies. These distinctional entities are but the great > players of the absence game... Therfor info science teaching should cover > "central themes", "multidisciplinary recombinations", and the comparative > study of "informational-distinctional entities." > > Best wishes to all! > > ---Pedro > John Collier escribió: >> >> Hi all, >> I am reviewing a book edited by Paul Davies and Niels Henrik Gregersen >> titled Information and the Nature of Reality: From Physics to Metaphysics. >> There is a lot of quasireligious stuff that I find hard to swallow, mostly >> by people I have never heard of before, but many of the chapters are by >> well-known scholars who have been influential in physics and biology, as >> well as the history of science. The most common thread through the articles >> is that the world is not made up of "stuff" (matter), and that the idea has >> been problematic since its introduction. Instead the world is made of >> information (the "It from Bit" view). Interesting book, even if you don't >> agree with it. >> John >> >> Professor John Collier >> Philosophy, University of KwaZulu-Natal >> Durban 4041 South Africa >> T: +27 (31) 260 3248 / 260 2292 >> F: +27 (31) 260 3031 >> email: colli...@ukzn.ac.za>>> On 2012/01/23 at 07:18 PM, in message >> <4f1d967a.8070...@aragon.es>, " > > -- > ------------------------------------------------- > Pedro C. Marijuán > Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group > Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud > Avda. Gómez Laguna, 25, Pl. 11ª > 50009 Zaragoza, Spain > Telf: 34 976 71 3526 (& 6818) Fax: 34 976 71 5554 > pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es > http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/ > ------------------------------------------------- > > > > > _______________________________________________ > fis mailing list > fis@listas.unizar.es > https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis ______________________ Robert K. Logan Chief Scientist - sLab at OCAD Prof. Emeritus - Physics - U. of Toronto www.physics.utoronto.ca/Members/logan
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