Re: [Fis] Emerging Synthesis?

2009-01-16 Thread Stanley Salthe
Folks -- Dear Gordana, Pedro, and colleagues, That would be unfortunate because a reduction of the information-theoretical approach to physics unnecessarily sacrifices explanatory power. (As would by the way, a reduction to biology or any other substantive theory.) At issue is --as you corre

Re: [Fis] Emerging Synthesis?

2009-01-16 Thread joe.bren...@bluewin.ch
Dear Friends, I have been "in transit" between home in Switzerland and California where my wife and I spend the winter and thus have just now looked at this "emerging exchange". It obviously requires more study, but three things jump out at me: 1."But the good thing is to be able to go dow

Re: [Fis] Emerging Synthesis?

2009-01-16 Thread Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
Dear Loet, I agree with you. The goal is not to reduce everything to physics and to stay at elementary particle level. But the good thing is to be able to go down to elementary particle level with the same principle. How to build up understanding of the whole architecture of existing things, ph

Re: [Fis] Emerging Synthesis?

2009-01-16 Thread Stanley Salthe
Pedro -- Dear Gordana and Loet, This is what the editors of the book literally say: "The third main idea is that Coordination Dynamics deals with informational quantities that transcend the medium through which the parts communicate. Evidence shows that things may be coupled by mechanical f

Re: [Fis] Emerging Synthesis?

2009-01-16 Thread Loet Leydesdorff
Dear Gordana, Pedro, and colleagues, That would be unfortunate because a reduction of the information-theoretical approach to physics unnecessarily sacrifices explanatory power. (As would by the way, a reduction to biology or any other substantive theory.) At issue is --as you correctly note-- t

Re: [Fis] Emerging Synthesis?

2009-01-16 Thread Pedro C. Marijuan
Dear Gordana and Loet, This is what the editors of the book literally say: "The third main idea is that Coordination Dynamics deals with informational quantities that transcend the medium through which the parts communicate. Evidence shows that things may be coupled by mechanical forces, by l