(1) Is there information in the situation there is no data ?
(2) If yes, an example would be great; If no, is there information if
no data is conveyed ?
Dear Michel,
In my opinion, the issue is the "is" in the above sentences. Traditionally,
one would label such a question as ontological. "Is" is derived from the
Latin "esse" as is "onto-". Since Descartes "Cogito ergo sum", one is able
to distinguish between res cogitans and res extensa. Information
(Shannon-type, uncertainty) does not exist as a stone or a table "exists",
namely as "esse".
Let's move to "uncertainty" because of the confusing connotations of
"information". (Bateson's "difference which makes a difference" for a system
of reference.) The beauty of Shannon's mathematical theory of communication,
in my opinion, is that "uncertainty" can be made measurable. Thus, one
quantify res cogitans. Within this domain, one can distinguish between
cogitantes and cogitata. (For Descartes, the cogitatum was God: the
transcendent Other of the contingent Cogito). Now-since Shannon-one has
access to objectified uncertainty; we can measure it. This can be done in
the abstract as a math (entropy statistics or calculus) or when using it for
building and testing our theories about extensa.
In my opinion, it is least confusing to consider "uncertainty" as an
attribute of discursive knowledge and theorizing and therefore at the
epistemological level. At the ontological level, one can assume that
uncertainty prevails. Perhaps, one can consider this as the basis of a
chaology given that knowledge can no longer ground itself in God or His
Revelation ("Nature").
Best wishes,
Loet
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