[Sigia-l] data as information?

[James Melzer]

Can I take the conversation in a different and equally fruitless direction? 

I agree that 'data' is the plural of 'datum'. Some data are a set of datum. 

However... 

I also think that 'data' is the name of the class of all things like datum. 

As a class, the word 'data' can be used in the singular correctly.
"data is growing"; "data is composed of datum"

It's the equivalent of a non-count noun, like 'information'. If you
use 'the' in front of it, you are talking about a representative from
the set.
"the data"; "the information"

If you don't use 'the', you're talking about the set itself (or some
arbitrarily large subset).
"data"; "information"

~ James

On 6/30/05, Eric Scheid <eric.scheid at ironclad.net.au> wrote:
> On 30/6/05 3:10 PM, "Listera" <listera at rcn.com> wrote:
> 
> >> Earlier you asked if there was something *between* data and information ...
> >> perhaps you should ask yourself if there is something between *noise* and
> >> information.
> >
> > Well, I don't buy the noise > data > info stuff, so these are not useful
> > delineations to me. Like I said, I see a lot of tortured "explanations" as
> > to what data is/could/should be.
> 
> hmmm...
> 
> zoologist:  the difference between lions and ocelots are [...]
> 
> ziya:       cats are cats, "lions" vs "ocelots" are not
>             useful delineations to me ...
> 
> zoologist:  ... okay ...
> 
> ziya:       but I insist you explain what "lions" are,
>             and how they are different from "ocelots"
> 
> zoologist:  ????
> 
> 
> e.
> 
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-- 
James Melzer


--------------------------------------
"Choice, the problem is choice." - Neo