[Sigia-l] data as information?

[Alexander Johannesen]

On 6/30/05, Dan Saffer <dan at odannyboy.com> wrote:
> The creation of meaning is done outside the data, by some sort of
> intelligence that can turn data into information. 

Actually, I'd like to already here stop you and say that it ain't that
simple. I just had coffee with a collegue where we discussed this, and
let's go straight for the model noise -> data and ask what "noise" is
as different from "data".

My feel from your explaination is that data is a recognised pattern in
noise, but noise itself is a chaotic pattern we recognise. Why not say
information is a pattern, too? Because they really all are, and the
very essens of what noise, data or information _is_ lies in their
pattern, and the pattern of 'data' is non-exsistant where there's a
human involved (the brain will always try to contextualise any piece
of atomic or otherwise blob of anything).

And as with *any* pattern, things are blurry. In fact, I'd say that
there is no data in the IA world at all; there's noise, and
information based on recognised noise. But I wouldn't stretch it
further than that to be honest; knowledge and wisdom are areas of
strong bias.


Alex
-- 
"Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know."
                                                         - Frank Herbert
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