Dear Pedro, Thank you for this very complete and very necessary listing. I will be glad to make some general comments, but I am leaving for two weeks of vacation in Turkey. I promise that my unconscious will be working on the task, and I should have something promptly on my return.
I still am fascinated by the self-referential debate has already started on Principle 1. I was surprised by the somewhat doctrinaire, polarizing tone of Arturo's note, since I have appreciated several of his previous postings. I therefore agree with Jose Javier's critique Now, the polarization of light can be well described mathematically, but what about the polarization of people and their ideas? I contend that this use of the term is (not only) metaphorical since real, physical changes take place, in the exchanges of qualitative information, such as the present one. These changes in patterns of thought and action can be studied rigorously; it's just a lot harder. In any case, I consider myself a realist about information without mathematics. For their possible utility in the debate, to get away from the reification, I suggest the following process definitions which if nothing else I have never seen together in the same place: A. Information is energy in a non-mathematizable form. B. Information is and is not energy. It is and is not physical; with this I could agree with Michel. C. Information is energy in motion: inform-motion. D. Information is the energy change of non-algorithimic, natural computation. (I believe Gordana's concept of natural computation is essential for progress. Rather than computation, we might call it non-numeric information processing, NNIP.) My final comment for now is to applaud the presence of Principle 10 in the list. In my view, we should always have the ethical finality of of our ratiocinations, such as they are, in mind. Best wishes, Joseph ----- Original Message ----- From: Pedro C. Marijuan To: 'fis' Sent: Friday, September 15, 2017 2:13 PM Subject: [Fis] PRINCIPLES OF IS Dear FIS Colleagues, As promised herewith the "10 principles of information science". A couple of previous comments may be in order. First, what is in general the role of principles in science? I was motivated by the unfinished work of philosopher Ortega y Gasset, "The idea of principle in Leibniz and the evolution of deductive theory" (posthumously published in 1958). Our tentative information science seems to be very different from other sciences, rather multifarious in appearance and concepts, and cavalierly moving from scale to scale. What could be the specific role of principles herein? Rather than opening homogeneous realms for conceptual development, these information principles would appear as a sort of "portals" that connect with essential topics of other disciplines in the different organization layers, but at the same time they should try to be consistent with each other and provide a coherent vision of the information world. And second, about organizing the present discussion, I bet I was too optimistic with the commentators scheme. In any case, for having a first glance on the whole scheme, the opinions of philosophers would be very interesting. In order to warm up the discussion, may I ask John Collier, Joseph Brenner and Rafael Capurro to send some initial comments / criticisms? Later on, if the commentators idea flies, Koichiro Matsuno and Wolfgang Hofkirchner would be very valuable voices to put a perspectival end to this info principles discussion (both attended the Madrid bygone FIS 1994 conference)... But this is FIS list, unpredictable in between the frozen states and the chaotic states! So, everybody is invited to get ahead at his own, with the only customary limitation of two messages per week. Best wishes, have a good weekend --Pedro 10 PRINCIPLES OF INFORMATION SCIENCE 1. Information is information, neither matter nor energy. 2. Information is comprehended into structures, patterns, messages, or flows. 3. Information can be recognized, can be measured, and can be processed (either computationally or non-computationally). 4. Information flows are essential organizers of life's self-production processes--anticipating, shaping, and mixing up with the accompanying energy flows. 5. Communication/information exchanges among adaptive life-cycles underlie the complexity of biological organizations at all scales. 6. It is symbolic language what conveys the essential communication exchanges of the human species--and constitutes the core of its "social nature." 7. Human information may be systematically converted into efficient knowledge, by following the "knowledge instinct" and further up by applying rigorous methodologies. 8. Human cognitive limitations on knowledge accumulation are partially overcome via the social organization of "knowledge ecologies." 9. Knowledge circulates and recombines socially, in a continuous actualization that involves "creative destruction" of fields and disciplines: the intellectual Ars Magna. 10. Information science proposes a new, radical vision on the information and knowledge flows that support individual lives, with profound consequences for scientific-philosophical practice and for social governance. -- ------------------------------------------------- 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 0 50009 Zaragoza, Spain Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818) pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/ ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Fis mailing list Fis@listas.unizar.es http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
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