RE: virus: Nature of Information
Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Mon, 13 Oct 1997 11:36:39 +0100
> From: Dave K-P[SMTP:k.p@snet.net]
>
> At 04:07 PM 10/12/97 +0100, Robin Faichney wrote:
>
> >patterning is that which allows the compression
> >of information. (Where compression is
> >distinguished from any gain in info carrying
> >capacity provided by other means, such as the
> >use of context.)
>
> Why limit ourselves to compression? Patterning is also that which
> allows
> the translation of information, too. There may be more, but that was
> the
> first to come to mind.
>
You can do all kinds of things with patterns, sure. The
point was to define "pattern". Definitions, like theories,
are better if simpler, other things being equal. I
believe the simplest fundamental thing you can say
about patterns is that they allow the compression of
information. Translation is considerably more
complicated.
> >To make the analogy
> >with the case of sound, those of us who say
> >patterns are "out there" are thinking of them as
> >being like airborne vibrations, while those who
> >say they are only "in here", see them as like
> >subjective sensations. Both, of course, being
> >correct within their own terms of reference.
> >No?
>
> Of course, its all relative! ;-)
>
Umm, not sure that helps, actually. ;-)
> P.S. Thought I'd toss in my defintion (slightly technical) of
> information:
> anything that goes from A to B. Open to discussion.
>
I think what you're getting at here is: an information *flow*
is equivalent to an energy flow, which is in turn equivalent
to causation. Static information is something else. Matter,
actually. (We're talking naturally-occuring info here.)
Robin