> Ok, so less about the flow and nature of information and more about the semantics.
I'm working on explaining the fundamental nature of information, and arguing that it is fundamentally semantic. I think there's a lot of confusion about what information theory actually tells us. I don't think it actually tells us about the fundamental nature of information. This isn't to detract from its importance, or to say the theory itself is wrong -- I'm saying that the usual interpretation of what it means, regarding information, is flawed.
> Are you familiar with Karl Friston's work on the Free Energy Principle?
Not terribly familiar with it. I watched the video.
I don't think it gets down to the a precise understanding of the fundamentals. I don't think there is a good understanding of the concepts like information and modelling, that it uses. It doesn't seem to provide specific mechanistic explanations of how the phenomena work and how they have their apparent properties.
As a couple of examples, what explanation does it have of how a system may have an understanding of the character of some entity? Where that entity might be something apparently "abstract" or "imaginary"? If the semantics are about mathematical details, what exactly are they about? What are those mathematical details?
But I don't think I can really hope to explain my position here. It requires a lot of explanation, and I'm still working on the explanation.
>> The key to all this is appreciating that, once you see semantics and information processing as a matter of physical processes, you can see that the correct semantics can be necessary for producing a physical outcome.
> I think I understand what you're saying and it touches on some of my own inquiries. A more concrete example, if you have one, might better help align me with where your thoughts are at regarding this.
Imagine a robotic arm that, when a electrical current is sent to it, reaches out and grabs at an area in front of it. If that current happens when there's an object in that position, then the robotic arm will end up picking up the object. If the current happens when there isn't an object in that position, the robotic arm will have picked up nothing. Thus, the semantics of the electrical current has a necessary causal role in the arm picking up the object. And thus we can analyse the causal details to get a concrete understanding of the semantics and its role.
I'm working on explaining the fundamental nature of information, and arguing that it is fundamentally semantic. I think there's a lot of confusion about what information theory actually tells us. I don't think it actually tells us about the fundamental nature of information. This isn't to detract from its importance, or to say the theory itself is wrong -- I'm saying that the usual interpretation of what it means, regarding information, is flawed.
> Are you familiar with Karl Friston's work on the Free Energy Principle?
Not terribly familiar with it. I watched the video.
I don't think it gets down to the a precise understanding of the fundamentals. I don't think there is a good understanding of the concepts like information and modelling, that it uses. It doesn't seem to provide specific mechanistic explanations of how the phenomena work and how they have their apparent properties.
As a couple of examples, what explanation does it have of how a system may have an understanding of the character of some entity? Where that entity might be something apparently "abstract" or "imaginary"? If the semantics are about mathematical details, what exactly are they about? What are those mathematical details?
But I don't think I can really hope to explain my position here. It requires a lot of explanation, and I'm still working on the explanation.
>> The key to all this is appreciating that, once you see semantics and information processing as a matter of physical processes, you can see that the correct semantics can be necessary for producing a physical outcome.
> I think I understand what you're saying and it touches on some of my own inquiries. A more concrete example, if you have one, might better help align me with where your thoughts are at regarding this.
Imagine a robotic arm that, when a electrical current is sent to it, reaches out and grabs at an area in front of it. If that current happens when there's an object in that position, then the robotic arm will end up picking up the object. If the current happens when there isn't an object in that position, the robotic arm will have picked up nothing. Thus, the semantics of the electrical current has a necessary causal role in the arm picking up the object. And thus we can analyse the causal details to get a concrete understanding of the semantics and its role.