Karpatschof on information concept.

Dear FIS members, In 2000 was published a book that I would like to bring to
your attention. It is a very unusual book in many respects. Below I cite a
little concerning its theorizing about information. Of course I'll be
interested in responses and I also hope to see this book discussed and
reviewed in the literature.

Karpatschof, B. (2000). Human activity. Contributions to the Anthropological
Sciences from a Perspective of Activity Theory. Copenhagen: Dansk
Psykologisk Forlag.

Karpatschof (2000, pp. 131-132) :
"Information

The quality of a certain signal in relation to a certain release mechanism,
the signal being a low energy phenomenon fulfilling some release
specifications. [PARA]The signal is thus the indirect cause, and the process
of the release mechanism the direct cause of the resulting high energy
reaction.

The release mechanism itself is, of course, an emergent entity, when it is
seen from a cosmological position. This is the precise agenda, for biogony
and biogenesis to furnish theories with an analysis of this emergence. We
can thus more precisely define:

Release Mechanisms

Systems having at their disposal a store of potential energy, the system
being "designed" to let this energy out in a specific way, whenever trigged
by a signal fulfilling the specifications of the release mechanism.

It is now clear why there has been this tendency to consider information to
be an obscure category that is in addition to the classical categories of
physics. Information is indeed a new category, but it cannot be placed,
eclectically, beside the prior physical categories. Information is a
category, not beside, but indeed above the classical categories of physics.
Therefore, information is neither directly reducible to these classical
categories, nor is it a radically different category of another nature than
mass and energy. Information is, in fact, the causal result of existing
physical components and processes. Moreover, it is an emergent result of
such physical entities. This is revealed in the systemic definition of
information. It is a relational concept that includes the source, the
signal, the release mechanism and the reaction as its relatants. One might
ask where I place the category of information in my system of ontology.
Should it be placed in the object field of cosmology, just as mass, energy
and causality? Or, should it be placed in the object field of biology? My
answer to this question will be the latter position. . ." (all emphasis in
original)
 
Kind regards,
Birger

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Professor, Ph.D. Birger Hj�rland
Royal School of Library and Information Science
6 Birketinget
DK-2300 Copenhagen S, DENMARK

email: bh@db.dk
phone: + 45 32 58 60 66
fax: +45 32 84 02 01
http://www.db.dk/bh/

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