[Sigia-l] Serious Discussion of IA Research?

[Peter Van Dijck]

> I don't think we need "a Newton to work out the laws of information"
> because I don't believe there are any - or at least there aren't any
> that are truly meaningful across all contexts.  

There *are* laws that apply to all humans. For example, basic levelness. 
  Every culture and language has categories that are, cognitively, more 
"basic" than others. This means that the category "cat" is recognized 
and used with a lot less cognitive effort than the category "feline". 
The word "cat" is shorter than "feline" for a reason. Children learn (in 
ALL cultures) what a "cat" is much sooner than they learn what  "feline" 
is. There are reasons why this is so (embodiment, ...) This is a 
universal law of how humans categorize.

Cheers,
PeterV
http://petervandijck.net