[e2e] About the primitives and their value

[Joe Touch]

David P. Reed wrote:
> Joe Touch wrote:
>> David P. Reed wrote:
>>  
>>> Joe Touch wrote:
>>>    
>>>> If we saw a paradigm that didn't relocate the problem (e.g., as
>>>> publish/subscribe does), sure. I haven't seen one yet. From an
>>>> information theoretic view, I'm not sure it's possible, either, but I'd
>>>> be glad to see suggestions.
>>>>         
>>> May I suggest that information theory is not the relevant way to think
>>> of this?  Information theory is good for lots of things, but it doesn't
>>> capture intentionality at all.
>>>     
>> ...
>>  
>>> Most *applied* information theory results talk loosely about "sending"
>>> and "receiving", but in fact the notion of sending and receiving are
>>> arbitrary elements to which information theory's tools are applied.
>>
>> Let's just say we differ in our opinions on the impact of info theory
>> (and entropy) to this area.
>>
>>   
> You can use category theory or information theory or any damn theory you
> like, if you first map your problem into the term of that theory, and
> map the various assumptions you are making into givens in that theory.  
> But the mapping you are proposing is not obvious.   And the word
> "paradigm" you used earlier is not precise enough to describe a
> relationship between a real system and its formal model.

Sending and receiving are well-defined in info-thy, notably in the way
in which sending increases entropy and receiving decreases it. But maybe
that's either too applied or not enough to match what you're referring to.

> My "opinion" is, I think, the way most mathematicians understand the
> relation between theory and real systems.

Sure - and I agree with that, but I've seen the mapping.

Joe

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