Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0610010132440.11039@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: - material substrate - uneven speculation - bad physics -
Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2006 01:33:07 -0400 (EDT)
- material substrate - uneven speculation - bad physics - Might we not consider mid-sized planets such as our own, information sinks, based on the variegated materials held in more or less permanent suspension in solid states? Such sinks in their totality characterize the universe as much as plasmas do; plasmas contain little information on the macroscopic scale, more, but not that much more, on the cosmic scale. When matter qua matter is held taut, it functions as a data-bases which may be retrieved, replaced, modified, etc.; in other words, a series of logical operations may be applied - operations which ultimately diffuse due to wear-and-tear, i.e. entropy - but which, in the larger meantime are pro- -uctive of abstract entities that are duplicable, equivalent, and indepen- dent of the material substrate itself. And such planets as our own contain greater degrees of information in relation to the quantification (such is it might theoretically be) of difference; in this sense, organic life con- tributes the most, given its molecular variations and encodings. From this I can only imagine an 'information astronomy,' charting variation, not necessarily physical constitution (but ultimately based on such) within the cosmos - this mapping might, in fact, present us with a more accurate reading of the place and function of organic life in the universe - On the other hand, real-material is obdurate, inert, and mid-sized planets are likely to be relatively barren. Ultimately it becomes a question of order and its constitution; clays, for example, possess some of the characteristics of organic life, with relatively simple structures, while the complexity of mountain chains or crater impact zones are the result of well-understood, non-quantum, non-relativistic, processes. Consider _information_ as that which propagates and transforms from one to another almost-equivalent structure, and _information structures_ are those abstracted second-order structures characterized by difference among almost-equivalent entities. Propagation and transformation imply energy and process; information structures are, in ordinary parlance, data-bases. Propagation and process also imply mappings and equivalences; they are operations upon the environment, as much as within it. They involve epis- temological shifts from organic to non-organic compounds. Such shifts generate epistemologies and second-order epistemologies. It is better to leave this murkiness behind and think of information sinks in general - sinks requiring potential wells, i.e. protective barriers, for their accumulative properties. Without such wells, everything is lost and information remains at the level of the monopole or singular bit. How would we measure in an information astronomy? One can only imagine slight disequilibriums, displacements, of planetary characteristics; one can also look for Gaia structures (organic compounds and their demo- graphics); one might be able to measure the 'roiling' of surface patches or aggregates. In any case, it would be necessary to consider the sun, for example, in relation to information-qua-stasis, given its continuous upwelling processes - the same for plasmas and, in fact, most of the constituents of the universe. And then what? Structure might reside longer in a hard-drive than solar prominence or corona - in which case local time becomes a necessary component (i.e. against the enormous space-time distancings of the universe as a whole). For the past 255 days, we have been following the so-called parallel lines across this terrain; to the best of our knowledge, they have moved neither closer nor farther apart. _