Re: [Fis] Answer to Mark

2015-08-01 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Fernando, Without wanting to spawn a new debate, I think it might be useful to flag something up about the 'phenomenology' that you mention. I understand Joseph's reaction to what to you say and I agree. However, phenomenology is a rich a complex topic, and few scholars have the tenacity to

Re: [Fis] Information Foundation of the Act--F.Flores L.deMarcos

2015-07-29 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Drs Flores and de-Marcos I very much enjoyed reading this paper: there is a lot to reflect on and I need to spend more time with it, but I have some immediate questions which I hope you can address. 1. The first concerns the concept of the ‘foundations’ in your title. Having

Re: [Fis] Locality & Five Momenta . . .

2015-10-30 Thread Mark johnson
Dear FIS colleagues, I'm curious about why the discussion about momenta matters. Does it matter because we believe it is important to determine the boundaries of specific discourses? Does that matter because we fear incoherence or confusion in our discussion if we don't demarcate boundaries?

Re: [Fis] Shannon-Weavers' Levels A, B, C.

2015-10-14 Thread Mark Johnson
Maybe I've missed something, but the subsumption I mentioned (referring to Bateson) was not between A, B and C: these are co-existent interacting dynamics as I understand them, and certainly a very rigorous and powerful generative model. I was worrying about subsumption of Bateson's "imagination"

Re: [Fis] Shannon-Weavers' Levels A, B, C.

2015-10-17 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Loet, Joseph and Fis colleagues, Some thoughts: Pascal: "the heart has its reasons [the constraints of the body] which the reason cannot perceive [because it is abstract]" and yet... we do come to know the reasons of the heart - we know them long before we know reason. In language as Joseph

Re: [Fis] [Fwd: Re: Information is a linguistic description of structures]--T...

2015-10-01 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Loet and colleagues, I wonder if an alternative view is possible: that the symbolic codification of the sciences inherent in discourse and supported by our universities (as they are currently constituted) is a constraint which prevents us exploring a proper science of constraint. To overcome

Re: [Fis] Fw: "Mechanical Information" in DNA

2016-06-09 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear all, Is this a question about counting? I'm thinking that Ashby noted that Shannon information is basically counting. What do we do when we count something? Analogy is fundamental - how things are seen to be the same may be more important than how they are seen to be different. It seems

Re: [Fis] _ Pirate Bay of Science

2016-02-13 Thread Mark Johnson
hear, hear! There's something important about the politics of information in this case. Sociologist Steve Fuller has argued that the open access movement is merely a "consumerist revolt, academic style" (see http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/9953/comment-page-1). It's an interesting

[Fis] _ Re: _ Response to several commentators:

2016-03-01 Thread Mark Johnson
I'm really grateful for Maxine's summary here. To those who query the value of phenomenology, I find myself reflecting on what Alain Badiou and a number of others (e.g. Burrell and Morgan's "Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis") have argued in there being (at least) three main

Re: [Fis] DISCUSSION SESSION: INFOBIOSEMIOTICS

2016-04-10 Thread Mark Johnson
I'd be interested to know whether "mattering" is considered within "meaning". I suspect "mattering" is distinct. thinking aloud Science isn't just meaningful. It matters to scientists. Perhaps it's only because it matters to some people, it exists. Re. meaning, I think the connection

[Fis] _ Re: _ Re: _ DISCUSSION SESSION: INFOBIOSEMIOTICS

2016-04-04 Thread Mark Johnson
des > the apparent distinctions that we take for granted. > Best, > Lou K. > >> On Apr 3, 2016, at 3:49 AM, Mark Johnson <johnsonm...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Dear Soren, Lou and Loet, >> >> I can appreciate that Bateson might have had it in for hypnot

[Fis] _ Re: _ Re: _ FIS discusion

2016-05-01 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear FIS colleagues, I'm sympathetic to Maxine's comment: "untethered observations and meticulous descriptions are the cornerstone of any life science. One is not out there trying to make others as you want them to be, but attempting to know them as they are. The task is precisely a challenge

[Fis] Fwd: Scientific publication: Response

2016-09-30 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear FIS Colleagues, Thank you very much for your comments. I've made a video response which can be found here: https://youtu.be/r8T2ssGAius The video mostly concerns Loet's comment about selection and codification and references Sergej's point about "shared objects" (and its relation to

Re: [Fis] Scientific Communication and Publishing

2016-10-05 Thread Mark Johnson
I'll go off to check out Sci-Hub, ... or maybe I'll wait until I leave > the office and get home. > > Dai > > >> >> >> From: Fis [fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es] on behalf of Loet Leydesdorff >> [l...@leydesdorff.net] >> Sent: 27 September 201

Re: [Fis] Scientific communication

2016-10-29 Thread Mark Johnson
Message- From: "Michel Godron" <migod...@wanadoo.fr> Sent: ‎29/‎10/‎2016 14:06 To: "Mark Johnson" <johnsonm...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Fis] Scientific communication Dear Mark, You write : "I'm guessing you are thinking of the line of thought from Hayek

Re: [Fis] Scientific communication

2016-10-29 Thread Mark Johnson
senza alcuna presunzione o superbia. Ho inventato davvero una una nuova concezione economica. Complimenti per la tua capacità comunicativa e auguri. Un abbraccio. Francesco 2016-10-26 13:21 GMT+02:00 Mark Johnson <johnsonm...@gmail.com>: Dear Jose, Francisco and Pedro, (Pedro - please co

Re: [Fis] Scientific communication

2016-10-29 Thread Mark Johnson
de survivre). > > Cordialement. > M. Godron > Le 29/10/2016 à 15:25, Mark Johnson a écrit : > > Dear Michel, > > Ok. Steve Keen has been close to Tony Lawson's work (he presented Minsky at > Lawson's conference last year) - he's a supporter of his broad thesis, > alt

Re: [Fis] Is quantum information the basis of spacetime?

2016-11-05 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Moises and all, Floridi has an excellent chapter in his "philosophy of information" called "Against digital ontology". It's worth quoting the two fundamental questions he asks about digital ontology: "a. whether the physical universe might be adequately modelled digitally and

Re: [Fis] Information as a complex notion

2016-11-05 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear all, Just a few quick comments to relate this current discussion back to scientific communication: 1. Taking information seriously must entail taking "communicating what we think about information" seriously - and exploring different ways of communicating what we think. 2. When I made my

Re: [Fis] Intelligence & Meaning & The Brain

2016-11-17 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Pedro and List, I've really enjoyed leading the session on "scientific communication" - it was an opportunity, for which I am very grateful, to explore the nature and purpose of scientific communication, and to experiment with different ways of communicating. It's been a fascinating couple

Re: [Fis] Scientific communication

2016-10-26 Thread Mark Johnson
nt >>> bureaucratic internecine conflicts. The book of Gregory Clark (2014, The Son >>> also Raises) is an excellent reading on class "iron statistics" everywhere, >>> particularly in education. >>> >>> E puor si muove! All those burdens have a ba

Re: [Fis] INFORMATION: JUST A MATTER OF MATH

2017-09-16 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Arturo, all, First of all, thank you to Pedro for exciting the list again - I was missing it! I have sympathy with Arturo's position, not because I am a mathematician (I'm not), but because I get tired of the "posturing" that qualitative positions produce among academics. I work in

Re: [Fis] Data - Reflection - Information

2017-10-09 Thread Mark Johnson
uld this do? It would maintain a counterpoint in the relative entropies within the ensemble. Would adding the dial increase the apophasis? Or the entropy? Or the relative entropy? Best wishes, Mark -Original Message- From: "Robert E. Ulanowicz" <u...@umces.edu> Sent: ‎0

Re: [Fis] Data - Reflection - Information

2017-10-14 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Loet, When you say "distinguishing between the information content and the meaning of a message requires a discourse" this is, I think, a position regarding what scientific discourse does. There are, of course, competing descriptions of what scientific discourse does. Does your

Re: [Fis] Data - Reflection - Information

2017-10-15 Thread Mark Johnson
Mark -Original Message- From: "Loet Leydesdorff" <l...@leydesdorff.net> Sent: ‎15/‎10/‎2017 07:17 To: "Mark Johnson" <johnsonm...@gmail.com>; "Terrence W. DEACON" <dea...@berkeley.edu>; "Sungchul Ji" <s...@pharmacy.rutgers.edu> Cc

Re: [Fis] Data - Reflection - Information

2017-10-09 Thread Mark Johnson
Which "information paradigm" is not a discourse framed by the education system? The value of the discussion about information - circular though it appears to be - is that we float between discourses. This is a strength. But it is also the reason why we might feel we're not getting anywhere! A

Re: [Fis] What is ³Agent²?

2017-10-23 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear all, There are some terms from physics which we use continually and assume we all know what they mean. I'm taking my cue from Peter Rowland's physics - see http://anpa.onl/pdf/S36/rowlands.pdf - in asking some fundamental questions not only about information, but about physics itself. 1.

Re: [Fis] Fw: Fw: Idealism and Materialism - and Empiricism

2017-11-08 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Joseph, This is great! I'm sympathetic to the view that a reconnection with physics is necessary and I too worry about the political implication of Luhmann's ideas, powerful work though I find it. I've started reading Logic in Reality, but am finding it quite hard. I have a question

Re: [Fis] Is information physical? A logical analysis

2018-05-25 Thread Mark Johnson
on of essences suggesting that information (in a general sense) exists in all three worlds but … in the physical world, it is called *energy*, in the mental world, it is called *mental energy*, and in the world of structures, it is called *information* (in the strict sense). This conclusion well correlat

Re: [Fis] No, this is not the reason.

2018-06-03 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Krassimir and Sungchul, I suppose this bears out Von Neumann's tongue-in-cheek advice to Shannon! (http://www.eoht.info/page/Neumann-Shannon+anecdote) Krassimir, just to ask about Boltzmann's use of the logs... I first understood this to be a measure of the probability distribution of a

Re: [Fis] Is information physical? 'Signs rust.'

2018-04-26 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Joseph, Thank you for this beautiful summary. That describes the world doesn't it? (it also describes music - which is a good sign). I want to say why information matters to me, not to argue about what it is. Information matters because it enables these conversations which dissolve

Re: [Fis] Fwd: Re: Verification of the Principle of Information Science--John Torday

2017-10-19 Thread Mark Johnson
I was thinking that these words from A.N. Whitehead's "Science and the modern world" (1926) are highly relevant to our discussions: "When you are criticising the philosophy of an epoch do not chiefly direct your attention to those intellectual positions which its exponents feel it necessary

Re: [Fis] New Year Lecture

2018-01-10 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear John, Thank you very much for this - a great way to start the new year! I'd like to ask about "communication" - it's a word which is understood in many different ways, and in the context of cells, is hard to imagine. When you suggest that “the unicellular state delegates its progeny to

Re: [Fis] The unification of the theories of information based on thecateogry theory

2018-02-12 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Karl, You've communicated *your* kaleidoscope rather wonderfully. Thank you! I shall look into it... Best wishes, Mark -Original Message- From: "Karl Javorszky" <karl.javors...@gmail.com> Sent: ‎12/‎02/‎2018 14:36 To: "Mark Johnson" <johnsonm

Re: [Fis] Simple amswer: NOT!

2018-03-07 Thread Mark Johnson
You'll be amused by this on Pavlov and Kornosky by Heinz Von Foerster... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BomO7pbSVNA The message is that one must be careful where one draws one's distinctions What you call data-ism is a bit like the bell without the clapper ;-) -Original Message- From:

Re: [Fis] Is Dataism the end of classical hypothesis-driven research and the beginning of data-correlation-driven research?

2018-03-12 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Alberto, Thank you for this topic – it cuts to the heart of why we think the study of information really matters, and most importantly, brings to the fore the thorny issue of technology. It has become commonplace to say that our digital computers have changed the world profoundly. Yet at a

Re: [Fis] Is Dataism the end of classical hypothesis-driven research and the beginning of data-correlation-driven research?

2018-03-13 Thread Mark Johnson
it regularly. > > It can be strengthen by particular > mental practices, well described > in the literature of Yoga. > > Digital Computing machines are > not capable of this, and although > number crunching is a way for > Technology to assist, it is no substitute > for the h

Re: [Fis] Is information physical?

2018-04-25 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Lou and Mark, Thanks for this - it is very important. A quick question: why does it have to one or the other? Does the law of the excluded middle apply to information? Why can't it be both? As a way of extending this, can I suggest that the boundary between the physical and the

Re: [Fis] A Paradox

2018-03-04 Thread Mark Johnson
Dear Loet, all, I agree with this. Our construction of reality is never that of a single system: there are always multiple systems and they interfere with each other in the way that you suggest. I would suggest that behind all the ins-and-outs of codification or information and meaning is a very

Re: [Fis] A Paradox

2018-03-04 Thread Mark Johnson
uest Professor Zhejiang Univ. <http://www.zju.edu.cn/english/>, > Hangzhou; Visiting Professor, ISTIC, > <http://www.istic.ac.cn/Eng/brief_en.html>Beijing; > > Visiting Fellow, Birkbeck <http://www.bbk.ac.uk/>, University of London; > http://scholar.google.com/citations?u