[Buddha-l] Views of Information & Knowledge (Culture & Religion)

[Malcolm Dean]

In: Buddha-l Digest, Vol 19, Issue 5, Message 4, Victor Gonzalez writes:

VG>... I know well that you and many other people says that information
VG>is knowledge. Also that there is a lot of stuff in many areas to mix
VG>both meanings, its importance in psychology theories, etc, etc...
VG>However, despite that scientific hypothesis, the reality shows another
VG>thing. We have tons of information but not knowledge.
VG>
VG>I fear that notion of the nature of knowledge is part of this
VG>contemporary world. These tons of information are just entertainment.
VG>They are useless to get knowledge about what we do here, therefore to
VG>get a moral meaning.
VG>
VG>"When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom."
VG>Confucius

Dear Victor, I'm pleased to learn that Confucius has read his Orwell,
but I am not one of those who say that Information is Knowledge.

We are now over 50 years past the discovery of Information Theory and
the thermodynamic nature of Information by Turing, Shannon, von
Neumann and others, yet an appreciation of the key implications of
this field has yet to penetrate the Humanities, denizens of which
still think the discussion is a matter of pragmatics.

Information has definite mathematical descriptions. It is a process,
not a substance. It is experimentally verifiable. We can see it happen
in the brain. It is a fundamental physical process in the Universe, as
described by the American physicist John Wheeler, who is famous for
the motto "it from bit."

One of the problems we are having in this dialog is my belief that
precise, verifiable definitions are necessary, and doubly so in
discussing Buddhism. I reject the idea that "tons of Information are
just entertainment," or that entertainment is "useless to get
knowledge about what we do here." One of my Buddhist teachers spent
many hours watching soap operas, affirming that Buddha-nature is even
on television. (After all, some human wrote that crap!) As for
obtaining moral meaning, soap operas are ideal morality plays. They
demonstrate the Stanford Encyclopedia definition of morality as
either:

   1. a code of conduct put forward by a society or some other group,
such as a religion,
       or accepted by an individual for her own behavior, or
   2. a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, which would
be put forward by
       all rational persons.

The emergence of "meaning" is more crucial, however, and the Buddhist
formula for its transmission is "Thus have I heard." That is,
"meaning" is the cognitive product of Information.

Sincerely,

Malcolm Dean
Los Angeles CA
Recent Lectures/Publications:
"Outline of Cognitive Thermodynamics," SCTPLS, August 5, 2005
"Cognitive Thermodynamics in Culture & Religion," SSSR, Oct 22, 2004
"General Theory of Cognitive Systems," UCLA CAG, May 13, 2004
http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs/bookinfo.asp?ReviewID=288&BookID=232