Re: [Fis] Re: What is information ?

Dear Heiner and colleagues,

Many thanks for your comment. Actually that "massage" option would be quite
congruent with the concept of "social grooming" I was advocating for the
social underpinnings of information. There was a very interesting reference
in Fischer (2001) "A History of Writing" to the recent finding of a number
of wax tablets and wood tablets from a Roman garrison (2nd Century AD) in
Vindolanda military base, Scotland. Almost all of the soldier writings were
devoted just to keep alive their social bonds ("how are you?, how are the
kids, I miss you..."). The Roman brand-new communication system was used as
social massage, social grooming... Just like our flamboyant Internet or
cell phones of today!

It was sort of a historical mistake considering information as stemming
only from the conceptual, rational layer, from Plato and Aristotle onwards.
Behind our conceptualizations, there is the generative reality of the human
life cycle (say, the cell cycle as I tried to schematize in my last message
concerning the biomolecular realm). That asocial, disembodied construction
of rationality has lead among other consequences to the alienation of
emotions, feelings, and ethics out from the scientific realm.

Backtracking could lead us to a different and more comprehensive set of
information principles. And presumably to neat foundations for "information
ethics" too.

best

Pedro

At 13:41 11/10/2005, you wrote:
>Dear Pedro
>I do not want to correct you when you cite McLuhan:
>The Medium is the Massage - not the Message !!

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Received on Fri Oct 14 14:34:28 2005