Another great quote, I apologise for reading it again, I am always bringing this one out because it's elegant, is Quine who restates Shannon and Weaver in a way:
"The notion of information is indeed clear enough... it is central to the theory of communication. It makes sense relative to one or another pre-assigned matrix of alternatives... You have to say in advance what features are going to count."
No pre-conception, no conception. Otherwise its novel, and a confusing jumble until some ordering, naming and searching of existing patterns has taken place. The next time, maybe then it's okay for those sensible impressions to become worthy of a symbol, like the number 42. In that case there are necessary conditions for the perception of 42 trees falling, other than the physical fact itself.
On Fri, 20 May 2011 13:01:54 +0800 Chris McCormick chris@mccormick.cx wrote:
chemicals and electricity inside the perceiver's physical head, models another part of the universe - what it calls the "42 trees falling".