To: Info seekers
Wow! Between my response to Horse and my thoughts to Graham, Marco already
took the conversation some new directions. What a creative thread!
GRAHAM ("quoting" and suggesting)
1) "Generally, information is whatever is capable of causing a human mind to
change its opinion about the current state of the real
world."
2) "Formally, and especially in science and engineering, information is
whatever contributes to a reduction in the uncertainty of the
state of the system...the formal measurement must be qualified as depending
on subjective probabilities, and "uncertainty" must be replaced by "opinion,
or personal estimate, of uncertainty"."
...I think it is interesting to reframe this paragraph from the first and
last sentences as: "information is
whatever contributes to a reduction in opinion (as opposed to knowledge)".
That puts a new spin on what an opinion is for me. When
someone says "in my opinion" what they are really saying is "in my personal
estimate of uncertainty". Hmm
ROG:
Hmmmm... If INFO is a change of opinion AND a reduction in uncertainty, then
INFO is a change of opinion in the direction of certainty. In other words,
INFORMATION changes uncertainty into KNOWLEDGE. This creates a spectrum of
opinion, from those we are completely uncertain about, to those we are fully
certain about. Hmmmm... did I just say the same thing as you but differently?
I guess I would tentatively offer that when someone says "in my opinion" what
they are really saying is "in my BEST REDUCTION of uncertainty". hmmm?
No comments on your hierarchy other than that ramblin' is good for the soul.
Rog
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:01:43 BST