Information is Provisional

David ChapmanSociety and Information Research Group

The Open University

Chapman. D. A. (2013) ‘Information is Provisional’ DTMD2013, Milton Keynes, April 2013. http://www.dtmd.org.uk/past-events/dtmd-13-conference. See also Chapman, D. A. (2014) "Information is provisional", Kybernetes, Vol. 43 Iss: 6 pp 895-910

Outline

• What is information? • Information is provisional• It matters that information is provisional• Conclusions

Outline

• What is information? – A diagrammatic representation– Semantic information– Environmental information– Meaningful data– An event that generates meaning

• Information is provisional• Why it matters

Information is… a difference that makes a difference

that makes

a difference

a difference

Semantic information is… communication

Triple-C model:•Cognition•Communication•Cooperation

Source

Environmental information is… cognition

Cognition

Map

Territory

count the rings

57 years old

Information is… meaningful data

GDI: General Definition of (semantic) Information (Floridi 2011, p84):

σ is an instance of semantic information if and only if σ consists of data, the data are well-formed, and the well-formed data are meaningful

Yes… but situated in time and space (Holwell 2011):data plus meaning in a particular context at a particular timeMalik (2005) says: Information is […] a situated event, an event that generates meaning

Information is… an event that generates meaning

Cognition

Map, Meaning

Data, Territory

Information is provisional

• What is information? • Information is provisional– Semantic information has to be true, therefore it

must be provisional– Communication is unreliable, therefor semantic

information must be provisional– (Environmental) Information is a sign and

semioticians tell us signs are provisional

• Why it matters

Semantic information has to be true and is therefore provisional

Floridi’s veridicality thesis (Floridi 2011)•False information or misinformation is not a kind of information: it is not information•Bar-Hillel – Carnap paradox (Bar-Hillel 1964)

A self-contradictory sentence carries the most information

But since we can’t ever know, finally, that something is true, information, too, must be provisional

Semantic information is unreliable and is therefore provisional

Noise

Semantic information is unreliable and is therefore provisional

( )log 1 SC W N= +Error free

but only after infinite time!

Semioticians tell us information is provisional

• Environmental information is the event which creates a sign in the map

• différance (Jacques Derrida) – Sounds like différence only recognised when

written – différer means both "to differ" and "to defer“

• Information:

The différance that makes a différance

It matters that information is provisional

• What is information? • Information is provisional• It matters that information is provisional

– Information is real: reality is information– Therefore reality is provisional– Examples

It matters that information is provisional

• Information is real• Materialism: “Matter is the fundamental constituent of the

natural world” (Philip Clayton)

• Reality is information– It from bit; not bit from it (John Wheeler)– From: maths->physics->Info – To: Info->Laws of physics->Matter (Paul Davies)• Reality behaves according to the rules of information, so if

information is provisional, so, too is reality.

Why it matters – reality is provisional

• Schrodinger’s cat• Identity– Gender– Race

Conclusion

Information is provisional and it matters!