Post 28. 04/10/2018 continued . . .
EnFormAction & Enformation
Review of Philosophy That Works by David M. Wolf
More quotes and comments :
14. “In a word, enformation is in the world and is real. But information is descriptive, symbolic, and not real.” Shannon's theory referred to packets of embodied information, which Wolf spells with an “e”. As an abstract idea, little “i” information is ideal, while little “e” enformation is real. Everything in the real world has been enformed by the power of EnFormAction, which physicists call Energy.
In my own terms, Platonic "Forms" are ideal, and enformed "Things" are real. EnFormAction is the power and the process of transforming Ideal Forms into Real Things.
15. “Enformation, in general, is a complex of the relationships among energy states and energy events.” Energy states are static potentials, while energy events are dynamic actions. Physicists know that sub-atomic (virtual) particles are not real, and can't be measured, until they do something. Virtual particles are imagined to exist in a field of mathematical points, until some packet of energy comes along to occupy that same imaginary point in space; then they become actualized into material forms. The energy field or quantum field is not an actual place in space, but an imaginary construct to allow physicists to think about abstractions in concrete terms. Geometric relations (ratios, root of Rational) between points in the field are the elements of information that allow perceptive minds to convert those abstractions into meaningful (real) things. But the ultimate reality is Ideality.
16. “First principle of Informative power : Reality, a holos of energy and enformation, powers information.” Holos : a whole, a self-contained system of energy & things. Philosophical discussions are so hard to follow, because they necessarily jump back & forth between Real & Ideal meanings of ordinary language. That's why physicists prefer the language of mathematics, which is purely abstract, and thus closer to the meaning in the Mind of G*D. What Wolf calls “Informative power”, I would call, in my philosophical language, EnFormAction.
17. “Information has its own principles.” Information (n.) : data, knowledge ; enformation (v.) : organizing process, (power, energy, enformy). Organizing Enformy is my own term for the antithesis to disorganizing Entropy. Energy can be inorganic, but Enformy is organic & life producing (elan vital). EnFormAction is the creative, ordering, enforming principle that organizes random flux (chaos) into organic Cosmos.
19. “Life enforms itself and uses information.” Life : a meta-physical force (elan vital, enformy) that enforms energy/ matter into a stable state long enough to maintain and to reproduce its material form.
20. “Science challenged philosophy, yet many philosophers carried on as though nothing had happened to alter their favorite role, that of metaphysical interpreter.” Philosophy has always gone where science cannot, into the unreal realm of Meta-physics, of Life, of Mind, of Consciousness. Meta-physics is literally “beyond” physics. But since most people have difficulty imagining the abstract objects of philosophical inquiry, the profession has always been relegated to the margins of public life. Yet the fertile margins are where new ideas come from, even those of physics and technology.
Post 28 continued . . . click Next
Quantum theory is relativistic & probabilistic, whereas Newton's theories were absolute & predictable. Newton's worldview was on the macro scale of the naked eye, assisted by weak technologies. QT goes beyond the limitations of human senses, into the micro and cosmic scales of reality. There, we see intimations of ultimate reality, but only via mentally constructed models (theories).
Observing a quantum system requires acting upon it, which triggers a reaction. Hence, observation is inter-action, a new relationship. Quantum systems interact with each other randomly, hence the total system is neutralized, canceled out, for the moment. But human probes come from outside the system in question. So the observation is intentional, and the reaction is meaningful.
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