Informational Tracking

282 Pages·2018·13.804 MB·English

by  Sylvie Leleu-Merviel

Informational Tracking

Traces Set
coordinated by
Sylvie Leleu-Merviel
Volume 1
Informational Tracking

Sylvie Leleu-Merviel
First published 2018 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018932684

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A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78630-247-2
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Chapter 1. The First Information Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2. The mathematical theory of information
by Shannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.1. Beginnings of this theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.2. Shannon’s generalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.3. Information and entropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3. Kolmogorov’s algorithmic theory of information . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3.1. Succinct presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3.2. First algorithmic information theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.3. Second algorithmic information theory . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4. Delahaye’s further developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4.1. Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4.2. Information value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4.3. Raw information content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4.4. Pragmatic aspects related to information value . . . . . . . . 12
1.5. Final remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter 2. Understanding Shannon through Play . . . . . . . . 15
2.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2. The game of tele-balls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.1. Layout and rules of the game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
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2.2.2. Producing the source event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.3. Channel and transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.4. Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.5. End of the process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3. The teachings of the tele-ball game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3.1. The concept of “tele” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3.2. The technical grounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3.3. The system’s language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.4. Synchronization and the clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.5. Introduction to noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.4. The general diagram of communication/transmission . . . . . . 22
2.4.1. Schematic diagram of a general communication
system according to Shannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4.2. Extension to information beyond
the game of tele-balls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4.3. Sense and nonsense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4.4. Electronic media designers at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.5. Conceptual confusion in the so-called
information theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5.1. Terminological shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5.2. Weaver’s levels of information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5.3. Measuring information: the CONTAINER . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.5.4. Inaccuracies and easy approximations
between content and container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.5.5. Opening to other perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chapter 3. “Tele” before Shannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2. The speaking African drums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2.1. The speaking drums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.2.2. The tone as bit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.2.3. Redundancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.3. The problems of long-distance communication . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.3.1. The ancient solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.3.2. The telegraph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3.3. The Morse system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.3.4. Alpha bravo code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Contents vii
Chapter 4. Some Revisions of the
Concept of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2. A double-faced concept: Capurro and Hjørland . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.2.1. Towards an operational concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.2. An etymological exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.3. Oppositions and relations, taxonomy
and complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.2.4. Going on… between measurable signal
and signifying emergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.3. The Mathematical Theory of Information
(MTI) as a starting point: Segal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.3.1. Mathematics rejoining the Human Sciences? . . . . . . . . 53
4.3.2. A measure for meaningless information . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.3.3. A unifying project that bumped into semantics . . . . . . . . 55
4.3.4. The incursion of information in the
Human Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.3.5. Beyond the MTI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.4. The Diaphoric Definition of Data (DDD): Floridi . . . . . . . . . 59
4.4.1. Information, data, meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.4.2. A definition of information based on data . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.4.3. Diaphoric Definition of Data in three levels . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.4.4. Diaphorae and saliencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.4.5. Data as a relational entity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.4.6. Beyond the DDD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.5. A pattern-oriented approach (POA): Bates . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.5.1. A definition of information based on patterns . . . . . . . . . 69
4.5.2. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.5.3. Final considerations, with the aim
of approaching diverse viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.6. Founding statements for a theory of information . . . . . . . . . 75
4.6.1. Information and meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.6.2. Notion of data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.6.3. Notion of signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.6.4. Notion of information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.6.5. Notion of sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.6.6. Notion of message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.6.7. Before concluding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
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Chapter 5. Conceptualization and Representations . . . . . . 83
5.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.2. Natural and artifactual devices for
producing representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.2.1. Meaning? Data processing, representation
and information! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.2.2. Hierarchization of representational capabilities . . . . . . . 86
5.2.3. Computerized artifacts modeling natural devices . . . . . . 91
5.3. Human conceptualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.3.1. The relativity of the object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.3.2. The relativity of appearance qualifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3.3. A rigorous formalization of
human conceptualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.4. About what “exists” in common thought,
in natural language and in formal language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.4.1. Concepts: the chair, the table and the beginning . . . . . . . 101
5.4.2. Conceptual trompe-l’œil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.4.3. Sensory perception and object genesis . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.4.4. Kantian philosophy, the “real” and “knowledge” . . . . . 108
5.5. The resulting epistemological revolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.5.1. Not data, but constructions about the world . . . . . . . . . 111
5.5.2. A relevance horizon-oriented framework . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.5.3. The end of truth and objectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Chapter 6. From Captures to Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.2. An illustrative sketch: a view of the human body . . . . . . . . 116
6.2.1. The “human specimen” horizon of
relevance, defined by its visible forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.2.2. The “patient” horizon of relevance,
defined by its symptoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.2.3. The “pathology” horizon of relevance,
defined by a specialized examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.2.4. The “clinical case” horizon of relevance,
defined by a debate about the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118