>So my feeling
>that in the raising discussion we have a danger of using the word
>"information" in very diverse meanings?
>
>What do you think?
I'm in total agreement with you and have spent a lot of time thinking about
the notion of information as a polysemic "thing"; as a concept, construct,
commodity-form, knowledge, newness of x y z "data" and so on.
Generally, I see it as an environmentally/socially embedded relationship
between self, community, and the world and the meanings that are made,
socially and individually, about these (thus recursive descriptions of
descriptions can occurr in infinite instantiations). Thus, information is
not a thing, but rather a particular manifestation which emerges from a
complex and dynamic system of relationships.
The nature of information and knowledge are, for me, the most problematic
"issues" we face, for a multitude of reasons.
Generally, information is treated unproblematically, as something "out
there" to be processed by a computer-like brain.
I can't swallow this, I'm afraid.
Phil