cells are smart

Dear Rafael and All:

   Rafael Capurro's analysis on conversion and transformation
is eye-catching. Although the statement

>I think the real problem is, how one of those forms of information
>can be converted into the other.

is Werner's not mine, Rafael's reminder on the linguistic aspect
of information should be well taken. If one raises the question of
"Which does information refer to, the experienced or experience?",
we would be at a loss for the choice. The safer choice may be for
both. This has been what both Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker and
G. Bateson seemed to imply. If we concentrate only on the
experienced, what experience is all about would quite easily slip
away. In contrast, if we limit ourselves only to experience per se,
many of us who are not trained as philosophers would lose the jobs.
Our linguistic institution must have some secret to cope with both
the experienced and experience. In this regard, Ray Paton's
distinction between different things at different times and
different times for different things is quite suggestive. This
perspective seems to invite us to think about a possible
relationship between information and time uder a bit new light.
If we feel sick and tired with Newtonian time and its relativistic
cousins, what should be an alternative? Cells are very smart as
Ray said, even if they do not know who Mr Newton is.

   Regards,
   Koichiro

     Koichiro Matsuno
Received on Tue Feb 17 10:34:57 1998