Sannon & information

Mon Apr 9 12:29:01 EDT 2007

Dear Loet,

Shannon's work is very important for information transmission and 
communication. However, a so-called "rational reconstruction" in 
mathematical logic has the specific aim of providing a technical 
definition of an ordinary language concept. Acceptability is usually 
a matter of capturing the acutal use of the term. Shannon 
information, if I may call it that, includes random strings of 
symbols, which the ordinary concept of information does not, so it 
fails the test. It is too broad.

My core definition of information, as  the propositional content of 
expressed thought, comes pretty close, but has yet to be tested. Note 
too that on my definition information is not a physical thing, 
although it always has a physical aspect, namely the act of 
expression, normally speaking or writing.

Cheers, David

Dear David,

Thank you for your interest. I read your paper at the Internet and 
although coming from very different direction, indeed, we seem to be 
aiming at similar things. My background may be more pro-Shannon than 
yours.

Best wishes,  Loet

Loet Leydesdorff
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681
<mailto:loet at leydesdorff.net>loet at leydesdorff.net ; 
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/>http://www.leydesdorff.net/

From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics 
[mailto:SIGMETRICS at listserv.utk.edu] On Behalf Of David E. Wojick
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 7:12 PM
To: SIGMETRICS at listserv.utk.edu
Subject: Re: [SIGMETRICS] The communication of meaning in social 
systems; preprint version available

Dear Loet,

It is delightful to get something like this on a holiday. I take it 
this is what the phenomenology of meaning looks like these days. Not 
that I pretend to understand phenomenology, so please correct me if I 
am wrong. I also take it that the interpretation of the parameters in 
the very interesting equations, as well as the technical concepts 
being used, is to be found in the cited references.

Since I have also presented a theory of the nature of information 
here, I thought it appropriate that I speculate upon the difference 
between this body of work and my own.
CF: 
http://www.bydesign.com/powervision/Mathematics_Philosophy_Science/information.html

My work derives from the tradition of analytical philosophy and 
mathematical logic begun by Russell and Wittgenstein. I suggest that 
it is looking at meaning in a very narrow sense, as exemplified by 
the atomic proposition. The phenomenological tradition is looking at 
meaning in a very broad sense, what it is to be meaningful if you 
like.

The human condition is rich enough to accommodate both approaches and 
so I do not see any disagreement here between us. The question is if 
there is any connection?

Best regards,

David

<http://www.leydesdorff.net/meaning0704/index.htm>The communication 
of meaning in social systems

<http://www.leydesdorff.net/meaning0704/meaning0704.pdf> pdf-version

Abstract

The sociological domain is different from the psychological one 
insofar as meaning can be communicated at the supra-individual level 
(Schütz, 1932; Luhmann, 1984). The computation of anticipatory 
systems enables us to distinguish between these domains in terms of 
weakly and strongly anticipatory systems with a structural coupling 
between them (Maturana, 1978). Anticipatory systems have been defined 
as systems which entertain models of themselves (Rosen, 1984). The 
model provides meaning to the modeled system from the perspective of 
hindsight, that is, by advancing along the time axis towards possible 
future states. Strongly anticipatory systems construct their own 
future states (Dubois, 1998a and b). The dynamics of weak and strong 
anticipations can be simulated as incursion and hyper-incursion, 
respectively. Hyper-incursion generates “horizons of meaning” 
(Husserl, 1929) among which choices have to be made by incursive 
agency.

Loet Leydesdorff & Sander Franse

Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681
<mailto:loet at leydesdorff.net>loet at leydesdorff.net ; 
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/>http://www.leydesdorff.net/

Now available: 
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581129378>The 
Knowledge-Based Economy: Modeled, Measured, Simulated. 385 pp.; US$ 
18.95 
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581126956>The 
Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society; 
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581126816>The 
Challenge of Scientometrics

--

"David E. Wojick, Ph.D." <WojickD at osti.gov>
Senior Consultant -- The DOE Science Accelerator 
http://www.osti.gov/innovation/scienceaccelerator.pdf
http://www.osti.gov/innovation/
A strategic initiative of the Office of Scientific and Technical 
Information, US Department of Energy

(540) 858-3150
391 Flickertail Lane, Star Tannery, VA 22654 USA
http://www.bydesign.com/powervision/resume.html provides my bio and 
client list.
http://www.bydesign.com/powervision/Mathematics_Philosophy_Science/ 
presents some of my own research on information structure and 
dynamics.

-- 

"If we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be research."

Einstein
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