[e2e] About the primitives and their value

[John Day]

At 13:47 -0700 2006/08/10, 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.

I am afraid David is right.  There is nothing to differ on.

David's point is a corollary to the point made in the Tractatus that 
all statements in mathematics are tautologies and therefore say 
nothing.  We provide the semantics and they are only as good as the 
veracity of our model.

Take care,
John