ONT Re: Extension x Comprehension = Information

[Jon Awbrey <jawbrey@oakland.edu>]

¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤

Jean-Luc,

Reflecting on this exchange for a while has convinced me
that I will need to do a better job of expositing Peirce's
lectures if I am going to draw out what is distinctive about
what he is saying and maybe to highlight the fact that it is
not just "enlightened for the time" but enlightened for ours.

What Peirce did was to develop a theory of information out of
purely logical considerations.  Many of the flashes of insight
that he propagates in 1865-66 will not be seen again until the
first shots of our own information and computing revolutions.
These are ideas about the "capacity limitations" of signals,
symbols, and their users, due in part to the physical nature
of actual sign tokens, in part to the fact that we fallible
and mortal finite information creatures are always out of
existential necessity trying to learn and to think under
conditions of imperfect information and consequently we
are always "reasoning under uncertainty", with biased
opinion, partial knowledge, and bounded rationality.
Strangely enough, it's the very improvements in the
speed and capacity of our computing and information
media since the early days of these revolutions that
has led to a reactionary tendency to forget the basic
principles on which the whole info republic is founded.

But it's late, and way past the hour of clarity,
so I will have to try and start fresh tommorrow.

Jon Awbrey

¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤