SV: [Sigia-l] RE: Data vs. Information

[Philip Hall]

On Monday, January 6, 2003, at 02:30 PM, Ed Housman wrote:

> Am I mad to be thinking of information
> as a substance.  One that hold society
> together, and the universe as well.
>
No, you're not, Ed. I kind of like the "substance" idea but I'm not 
sure about holding the universe together. I'm looking at information in 
a very human-centric context and I don't really think that the universe 
needs our information to hold it together.

That said, I kind of think the 'substance' vs. 'bit' conundrum is 
somewhat like the old physics questions about light: is it a particle 
or a wave?

For my purposes, measuring the smallest unit of information is highly 
situational. I only have to figure out where to draw the law for the 
types of practice manuals and educational texts used in this one 
discipline and the line I draw is understood to be a compromise at 
best. So, I'm leaning towards a kind of wave perspective that the 
'substance' point of view might help me towards.

Regards,
Phil
www.philiphall.ca