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As I continue to work on papers for BioTheory, I seem to generate
new connections which, when I go back and look in my father's work, are
almost always represented in various ways. I regard that as a form of
confirmation or feedback that I'm proceeding in the right direction; his work is
a very good compass. The following is one such insight, which is appropriate for
several of the different discussions that have been developing on the
list:
One
of the most useful pieces of information to keep in mind is that every single
mode of measurement or modeling of systems that we employ is going to
have aspects of information associated entirely with IT?which means that any
mode of measurement or modeling of systems will add those aspects of information
to the process of modeling or measurement of all systems you apply it to.
Numbers are one such example. You can do things with numbers that you cannot do
with a system you apply a numerical mode of analysis to.
That
excerpt is from a paper I'm currently working on for the journal. My father
wrote a whole book about this subject, the title of which is referred to in the
subject line. It's very easy to overlook this truth and get caught up in the
aspects of a measurement which pertain to the mode, thinking that you're dealing
with aspects of the systems you measured..... when such aspects have nothing to
do with the systems whatsoever. This is why statistics can be made to dance to
whatever tune the piper cares to play.
My
father used to tell a story about a colleague, named Ycas (pronounced
"Ee-chas")(whose first name I can't remember for sure, but it may have been
"Elohandro"?) Anyway, Ycas was explaining to him how the GDP ("gross
domestic product") number, which is a governmental economic "indicator" is
arrived at: "Let's say that you and I are the only two citizens of a country. I
open the door for you as we go into a room and you give me a dollar. You open
the door for me as we leave the room and I give you a dollar. The gross domestic
product of our country has just increased by two hundred percent." Of course,
the "country" is no further ahead, financially... but if one is dealing with the
numbers, and not referring back to the system the numbers are supposed to
be measuring... how would one ever be able to know that the country is no
further ahead?
This
is, in fact, exactly the kind of disconnect that we see happening just about
everywhere around us; in science, in politics, in economics, in environmental
matters, in professional situations..... sheesh! These forms of measurement and
representation of systems are meant to augment our natural abilities of
discernment... not replace them.
Important
safety tip: when flying a plane, look out the window (don't rely entirely on
what the instrumentation is "saying").
Judith
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