Information

Everything is made of one hidden stuff
Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is information?

Wikitionary's entry lists several definitions but I want to pay special attention to this one : Data that have been processed into a format that is understandable by its intended audience.

The Wiktionary's definition is totally immersed in the subject human perspective information. Basically data that is understandable by a human is information. This is a very limited conception but its a good place to start.

Two "Types" of Information

1. Syntactic -- Refers to the signals and signs features themselves irrespective of any reference or meaning. For example computer science deals with information as a set of bit patterns which can be quantified, calculated and statistically measured following the information theory as laid down by Claude Shannon.

This can be thought of as pure factual information transmitted in specific quantities following precise statistical patterns. Direct dyadic relationships between senders and receivers. The standard view of science is based on this perspective of information. Observation of facts, leading to knowledge of objects and phenomenon in a framework of cause and effect. This has lead to a knowledge perspective of a clockwork universe, a extremely complex machine of independent parts, devoid of purpose.

1.Semiotic -- Refers to what signs and symbols convey in terms of meaning. Biosemiotics is the 21st century theory of information based on the perspective of meaning involving a triadic relationships of the sign, the thing signified, and the interpreter.

A sign becomes information through the act of interpretation. When an interpretant is formed (in a molecule, in a cell, in a brain, in a society) the information acquires real biological meaning.

Instead of the perspective information of the causes and effects of objects and phenomena, semiotic information perspective. Observation leading to the meaning of objects and phenomena in a framework of interactive fields of organized energy in-formed by the communication and interpretation of signs. This can lead to a understanding perspective of a growing, evolutionary universe of complex meaning feedback loops.

{molecules as messengers, eating is absorbing molecular information which our cells use to maintain our overall formation (healthy body).

Human Information Abstractions

Information primarily is received by our eyes. Seeing is the direct isomorphic translation of reflected light forms to nervous system firing patterns.

This data is in forming our brain and body.

One type of human information is imagery which is a map of a vision. When one builds a house, one researches several ways to design and build it. The data that is discovered are images either from words or pictures from books or people. We form in our mind a vision of the goal and use the knowledge(images) gathered in formation to create the house.

Data are in formation to be understandable by a particular culture. The formation aligns with the culture's set of arbitrarily bounded fragmented abstractions. When a traveler enters a foreign culture he must use his senses to gather data on objects and this communication abilities to learn names so that he can use the cultures fragmented abstractions in formation. Once the understanding of sense and thought is informed then communication is possible. This process also occurs in scientific disciplines where only through years of training one can understand the connection between abstraction and apparatus enough to usefully participate in the project(ing) activity.

A certain formation of ideas allows one to perceive and manipulate the Unified Field one way out of an infinite amount of possible formations. All of which are real yet in reality unreal. Reality is all formations undergoing synthesis simultaneously.

The Information Age as we call it is part of the movement of consciousness around Earth. Our minds have become individuated and full of fragmented abstraction sets. Centuries ago a few learned men passed their belief sets to the rest of their fellow humans. Long amounts of time passed as evolving medias altered the flow of knowledge and belief in-formation. Thousands of years of speech spread myth and story around the world. Formations of people stayed small because a leader can only control a limited sphere of territory with word alone. It is difficult to pass secret messages.

Suddenly the Phoenicians appeared on the seen with a writing system which made it possible to pass written messages of any language based on a universal alphabet of symbols corresponding to spoken sounds. Written communication between diverse languages became actual. Trade blossomed. Writing made it possible to record facts that could be retained accurately 5-6 thousand years ago. Leaders now could assemble cultures in-formation by written decree that could be transported hundreds or thousands of miles away. These messages could be sealed and grand strategies developed between very few powerful people. Writing's persistence increased the ability of matter to be in-formed. Roman roads were built so the messengers could get to the legions on the frontiers. The commanders could be coordinated and outwit their enemies. The Greeks took up the phonetic alphabet and exploded into their Golden Era of trade, science, philosophy, art, and war after being nothing but near-tribal fishermen. The new media formation had a profound impact on the Greek culture.

Unfortunately, he mass of people throughout the last 10000 years remained unaware of the potential of writing. The deep understandings of media such as writing and art were hoarded by the gangster-type leaders who wished to in-form the people as they saw fit. When I say inform this has a dual meaning. Informing someone's mind with an idea will produce a corresponding physical formation created by the individual who was informed. We have been forcefully informed by leaders drunk on power or at least ignorance for 10000 years. Fortunately for our generation enough factual knowledge on the use and effects of media exists to free ourselves from "brainwashing." All that is required is conscious attention NOW to the processes of media and its negative uses.

Unfortunately for the psychotic power addicted leaders, they've gone too far. If they had read Marshall McLuhan's book The Laws of Media then then would understand that any media implemented to an extreme will affect a reversal in its effects. Our total hypnosis (extreme overbalance in sense ratio) will eventually reverse into total conscious understanding of the effects of media on sensory ratios.

Now comes the time of the so called information overload. What does that mean? There are so many sets of fragmented abstractions in-formation. Belief systems, scientific discipline, government''s of the world propaganda, national news networks, local news networks, a plethora of corporate new networks, Google, YouTube, blogs, and in fact almost every website is a separate media---all these are sets of knowledge or belief in formation competing for every individuals attention. We are living in the birth of an age where instead of being told what is reality, we decide for ourselves what is reality, we inform ourselves based upon personal feelings and even happenstance. Each of our minds knowledge will be in formation differently. The mental information we will then use as our vision to project our emotion outward into the universe.

Creating your own reality is not a foo foo New Age scam. The artists see what is happening and talk about it and are pooh-poohed by more conservative people. But it is the conservative people who are creating the computers, and internet, and corporate news networks, and all that stuff. It is happening and its the conservatives who unwittingly are leading the way.

Sensory derived understanding of meaning of the general principles of the universe allows us to maintain and grow technological extensions of our body(our tools) forming more complex formations with more quantum possibilities. Information-meaning overcomes entropy and makes the improbable likely. Consciousness is the emergent property of a continuous process of the selectively organized accretion of meaning in-formation. Human beings have organized enough meaning in-formation to have an advanced awareness and tool making capabilities.

Once the amount of information relationship and combinations, resonance and dissonance, and blending reaches a certain critical mass, a tipping point then there will be no normal, no reality. The accepted stable what is will shatter. For a while people will be afraid, their foundation has been lost. This death is a beginning, a new order of fractal organization which scales to incredible levels. Without a accepted belief system, a reality, we will be free to just plainly see what is nothing more nothing less.

And what is is beautiful.

Universal Information Perspective

Information is physical. Information is not just an abstract concept, and it is not just facts or figure, dates or names. It is a concrete property of matter and energy that is quantifiable and measurable. It is every bit as real as the weight of a chunk of lead or the energy stored in an atomic warhead, and just like mass and energy, information is subject to a set of physical laws that dictate how it can behave--how information can be manipulated, transferred, duplicated, erased, or destroyed. And everything in the universe must obey the laws of information, because everything in the universe is shaped by the information it contains.
Charles Seife
Decoding the Universe

All matter and energy is patterned, is in formation. The very composition of every object or structure is information. Any mind can come along and take from these formations meaning. Any mind can reorder any formation by projecting its vision. The vision travels from inner mind sight through the body and into the matter and energy in the local-around. You walk up to the sandy beach and build a sand castle. The formation of the local-around sand is now human understandable information. A human context of formations has meaning to most individuals. Castles symbolize power, homes, community, etc...

What must be realized is that all matter MEANS something whether we understand the context or not.

The configuration of ions streaming from the sun has pattern, causes, and different meanings can be derived depending on the contexts. The context may simply be the interactions with interstellar dust particles. Or skin cell DNA.

Information Entropy

Information entropy is a measure of disorder, or more precisely unpredictability. For example, a series of coin tosses with a fair coin has maximum entropy, since there is no way to predict what will come next. A string of coin tosses with a coin with two heads and no tails has zero entropy, since the coin will always come up heads. Most collections of data in the real world lie somewhere in between. It is important to realize the difference between the entropy of a set of possible outcomes, and the entropy of a particular outcome. A single toss of a fair coin has an entropy of one bit, but a particular result (e.g. "heads") has zero entropy, since it is entirely "predictable". Source Wikipedia

A single toss of a fair coin has an entropy of one bit. Two tosses has an entropy of two bits. The entropy rate of English text is between 1.0 and 1.5 bits per letter.

Like heat, information is emanating from every body in space.