Re: Is Information a Disease?

Dear John,

As a therapist, I find the metaphor of information, disease and people
really interesting. In my work, emotional exchange is foremost while
information has somewhat limited value, depending on its kind and sources.

An obvious example is that sometimes information about a person's diagnosis
is not only not helpful, but damaging. At other times, it is very, very
useful. All depends on the specifics and psychodynamics of the case.

One place where information appears particularly damaging is with new
mothers who are extremely anxious about doing the "right thing" with their
babies. They sometimes respond to anxiety by compulsively gathering
information -- asking everyone they know for advice, reading book after
book. Inevitably, they gather opposite points of view and then screech to a
halt about how to proceed. In this case, the search for information comes
out of extreme insecurity and mistrust of their own natural instincts.

Hope this isn't too far off base in our discussions.
Terry Marks-Tarlow

>From: "John Holgate" <HolgateJ@sesahs.nsw.GOV.AU>
>Reply-To: fis@listas.unizar.es
>To: Multiple recipients of list FIS <fis@listas.unizar.es>
>Subject: Is Information a Disease?
>Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 08:38:14 +0200 (MET DST)
>
>Dear Pedro,
>
>Your comment about informational entities in the neurosciences prompted
>thoughts I have entertained for some time about states of health/disease
>and informational phenomena. Hopefully my comments are not too tangential
>for our present forum.
>
>Certainly the metaphorical comparison between social systems and disease is
>often made (healthy economy, sick organisation etc).
>
>Can we have active or passive immunity to certain informational conditions?
>If information is a 'disease state' is knowledge the antidote of choice?
>Does the Invisible Hand come with a surgical rubber glove?
>
>There is the obvious linkage in the pathology of Information Overload and
>the reportedly fatal Internet Overuse Syndrome
>caused by an increase in stress levels from not knowing enough. Misuse of
>and misunderstanding about 'information' are
>part of the problem.
>
>The Immune System with its mechanisms of protection of (or attack against)
>the 'self' of an organism operates by virtue of
>informational cues and the physicist David Bohm was particularly interested
>in the analogy but never fully fleshed it out.*
>
>Can we possibly translate this into the language of the 'biology' of the
>firm?
>
>If the CEO asks "Are we immune from takeovers?" can we take his question
>literally?
>
>With software viruses the parallel is obvious but some enterprises die of a
>sort of informational immune disease
>with information received from inside the firm combatting information
>received from outside (and vice-versa)
>I have been involved with several organisations where misinformation is
>treated as true information and the host has
>been finally taken over by the parasite - in recent times the CEO himself
>is often the parasite (:
>
>And I think there are good historical examples of informational autoimmune
>disease in certain companies (like Enron)
>and political states (like the USSR ).
>
>You or Ted may be aware of work done in this area - if so I'd be interested
>to hear.
>
>John H
>
>*"What Bohm was speaking about in this context was what he called "active
>information". Bohm proposed that quantum processes are guided by
>information - not passive information in the form of encoded data but an
>actual activity of information. Bohm's analogy is to the way subtle
>information in a television signal impresses itself upon, and thus gives
>form to, the crude energy entering the electrical plug. In this way a
>subtle signal produces pictures and sounds. For Bohm, information is an
>activity that acts on both matter and energy. He also connected the idea of
>active information to the operation of the immune system, which he saw as a
>form of intelligence delocalized over the whole body. For Bohm a change of
>meaning in the mind became a change of actual being in the body. " David
>Peat http://www.fdavidpeat.com/bibliography/essays/text/padova.txt
>
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Received on Sat Sep 21 01:11:41 2002