This stems from conversations with Terrapin Station. As I noted earlier (to you and him), I think one of TS's big beefs is with people he perceives to be reifying abstracts; regarding abstract concepts as if they were real. Abstract being mental constructs. Real being extra-mental.Greta wrote:Heh. If information is not real then there is no difference between an empty integrated circuit and one that is full of data.
I suspect, as is so often the case, some disagreement comes from different word usages, not from fundamentally different ideas. Not all of it, but some of it.
But I presume the answer to your point, above, would something like:
"There is a physical difference between the IC in those two different states, but that doesn't make information real. If my kid's XBox is currently running Grand Theft Auto then it is in a different physical state than when it is not running that particular game. But that doesn't mean that the cars in Grand Theft Auto are real."
I guess it would go something like that.
I've never used it to mean that. I guess some people might.Belindi wrote:Is "this thing we call information" the same as natura naturans?...