Thanks Pedro for your remarks. We have not reached our destination as you point 
out but the important thing is to enjoy the journey which I certainly have. It 
is inevitable that with such a slippery concept as information that there will 
be different destinations depending on the travellers but what I like about FIS 
in general and the dialogue that Terry prompted in particular is the 
interesting ideas and good company I encountered along the way. As for your 
remark about searching where there is light I suggest that we pack a flashlight 
for the next journey to be led by our tour guide Zhao Chuan. One common theme 
for understanding the importance of both information and intelligence for me is 
interpretation and context (figure/ground or pragmatics). Thanks to all 
especially Terry for a very pleasant journey. - Bob
______________________

Robert K. Logan
Prof. Emeritus - Physics - U. of Toronto 
Chief Scientist - sLab at OCAD
http://utoronto.academia.edu/RobertKLogan
www.physics.utoronto.ca/Members/logan
www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Logan5/publications








On 2015-01-30, at 8:25 AM, Pedro C. Marijuan wrote:

> Dear Terry and colleagues,
> 
> At your convenience, during the first week of February or so we may put an 
> end to the ongoing New Year Lecture --discussants willing to enter their late 
> comments should hurry up. Your own final or concluding comment will be 
> appreciated.
> 
> Personally, my late comment will deal with the last exchange between Bob and 
> Terry, It is about the point which follows:  "...there was no thesis other 
> than the word information is a descriptor for so many different situations 
> and that it is a part of a semantic web - no roadmap only a jaunt through the 
> countryside of associations - a leisurely preamble." 
> In my own parlance, we have been focusing this fis session on the 
> microphysical foundations of information (thermodynamic in this case) which 
> together with the quantum would look as the definite foundations of the whole 
> field, or even of the whole "great domain of information." But could it be 
> so? Is there such thing as a "unitary" foundation? My impression is that we 
> are instinctively working "where the light is", reminding the trite story of 
> the physicists who has lost the car keys and is looking closest to the street 
> lamp.  The point I suggest is that the different informational realms are 
> emergent in the strongest sense: almost no trace of the underlying 
> information realms would surface. Each realm has to invent throughout its own 
> engines of invention the different informational & organizational  principles 
> that sustain its existence. It is no obligate that there will be a successful 
> outcome.... In the extent to which this plurality of foundations is true, 
> solving the microphysical part would be of little help to adumbrating the 
> neuronal/psychological or the social information arena.
> 
> The roadmap Bob suggests is an obligatory exploration to advance; we may 
> disagree in the ways and means, but not in the overall goal. It is a mind 
> boggling exercise as we have to confront quite different languages and styles 
> of thinking. For instance, the next session we will have at FIS (in a few 
> weeks) is an attempt of an excursion on "Intelligence Science".  Presented by 
> Zhao Chuan, the aim is of confronting the phenomenon of intelligence from a 
> global perspective amalgamating science (artificial intelligence), emotions, 
> and art (poetic and pictorial). Not easy, but we will try
> 
> Anyhow,  Terry, we much appreciate your insights and the responses you  have 
> produced along the Lecture. It was a nice intellectual exercise.
> 
> Best wishes to all---Pedro
> 
> -------------------------------------------------
> Pedro C. Marijuán
> Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
> Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
> Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
> Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta X
> 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
> Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
> pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es
> http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
> -------------------------------------------------
> 
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