[Sigia-l] data as information?

[Dan Saffer]

On Jun 29, 2005, at 10:25 PM, Listera wrote:

> I thought I took my meds today, but if "[Data] is the evidence of a
> relationship between two things" how's that fundamentally different  
> from
> "the creation of something meaningful from otherwise senseless bits of
> data"? Data is either "meaningless" and devoid of relationships, as  
> you
> claim, or data signifies relationship and context, as the assertion  
> above
> indicates. How is it both? And how's that any different than  
> information?

I'm not sure how many ways I can explain the same thing. It's late  
and I'm making sloppy mistakes, like not using the word datum. ;p

The creation of meaning is done outside the data, by some sort of  
intelligence that can turn data into information. Only by making data  
(or more precisely, multiple datum) into information ("The population  
of New York City is 6,000,000") can we seen the relationship between  
datum (ie New York City and 6,000,000).

Not to muddy the waters, but I suppose an argument could be made that  
"New York" and "6,000,000" have meaning outside of contexts. That's  
an argument I'll leave for the philosophers or the semioticians among  
us.


> Is there something
> *between* data and information?
>

Intelligence, either human or artificial, to show the relationship  
between datum.