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Journalism commentator rolls with the times:

Journalism evolving, not dying: science author

Vit...thanks for the very timely laugh.

Over at the Globe and Mail in the Politics section, look who's slagging Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Headline: "PM rips into Liberals behind closed doors: Two days after giving rosy economic outlook, Harper tells conference things would be much worse had Conservatives not been in office"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090313.wPOLharper0313/BNStory/politics/home

The author of this tripe is none other than the Canadian Press's Jennifer Ditchburn, the "journalist" who a few years ago spliced footage of an unrelated rally of enraged Muslims into a report slagging Prime Minister Stephen Harper, after which she disappeared for awhile.

Ding, Dong, the Ditch is dead --
Witch, old, Ditch,
The Wicked Ditch,
Ding, Dong, the Wicked Ditch is dead

... well, it appears not ...

Further comment: http://crux-of-the-matter.com/

You're welcome, Bluetech. And I'll be honest,
Prof. Irwin Corey as me just cracks me up ;-)

Ezra Levant brings news that Richard Warman, known to his fellow racists as "Pogue Mahone" and "Axetogrind", is now hammered by... the CHRC he used to work for. Amazing what happens when a sane person enters the process. I won't ruin the news by saying more.

Great day for Ezra, Canada and Canada fans!

I guess we can only be happy that the general incompetence of the media is fully intact regarding the crash of Cougar's S-92.

I can only imagine the fully manufactured and baseless outcry that would be raised if they realized that the S-92 is Sikorsky's civilian version of the Air Force's new Cyclone, the Sea King replacement.

Those 4 seconds stating @ 2:20 were soooo worth it. That describes exactly how things get around here, and the blogosphere in general, when things go off on a tangent. Jackie was awesome, my old man would love this.

Thanks for the belly laugh Vitruvius.

No didactic on semiotics without full rhetorical flourish!

Nice one, Vitruvius.

So now we know just who writes those anonymous 'Canadian press ' articles.
The globe article sounded very familiar.
CTV.ca has the same one, san Ditchburns name.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090313/harper_speech_090313/20090313?hub=QPeriod

So they copy and paste?

Interesting comments from Tom Long and Mike Brock.Is that media manipulation or are they really that delusional?

Trees of green, Tenebris, red roses too.

vitruvius - you are out of your professorial irwin corey/Mr. Bean mind! But I do appreciate the comparison to Jayne Mansfield. Heh. Even sixty years ago I wasn't a JM. Ah well. In my next life.

Now, as for a primer on semiotics, there's no such thing. I certainly taught 'my' semiotics for many years - but, it absolutely requires diagrams. Not words. Each class, I ended up covered in chalk dust. And each class, I would also type of 'keywords' of key concepts, with diagrams, and hand them out to students at the next class. There was no textbook. Just my classes and those notes. I have those notes but not on disc; just hard copy. yes, I know about scanners.

And, I've given many conference presentations but they require power point. Since I'm terrible at record keeping, and even, keeping powerpoint presentations - I've found only two. Kind of old, but, they get the point across. I'll send them to you and you can figure out if and how to put them up. One is on the 'Sign as a WFF' or 'well-formed formula'. I'll send them - if you want to put them up, OK. They should be shortened (50 plus slides is a bit much).

As for the written text, well, there's a recent article and it's NOT a beginner's article, in an online journal. I'll find the name - I'm terrible at naming my papers and can never remember their names..Let's see..It's in the journal SIGNS and is in the year 2008 and is called 'Biological Organisms as Semiosic Systems: the importance of strong and weak anticipation'. So there.

SIGNS

I can't imagine many are interested, but it IS a fascinating area of exploration because it moves into the physical, chemical, biological and social areas. Fascinating to consider how microorganisms develop and interact.

As for more, well, I'll think about it. I'm retired and lazy - and creating those powerpoints isn't easy. But there's no way to explain these concepts without diagrams.

My comment, rather long, was sent to the corner.

So, I'll just say that there's no primer on semiotics. The ones I've seen are junk. My explanations require diagrams; I always ended up covered in chalk dust. And I'd type out keywords of each class and give them to students.

Lots of conference presentations, in power point. I'm terrible at remembering where I've stored or put them, and have, at present found only two. I'll send them to you, vitruvius, and you can decide if you want to use them. Diagrams and powerpoint are a great help in getting the ideas across.

As for texts, yes, lots...can't recall everyone, but a recent one is in an online journal. I'll try to direct people without a link, since I was sent to Forrest Gump's corner a minute ago.

It's in the journal SIGNS.
The usual http but no triple w, and then, vip dot db dot dk slash signs slash Articles dot htm

Scroll down to 2008 and the article, with the fascinating name of Biological organisms as semiosic systems, the importance of strong and weak anticipation. Not for beginners. Oh well.

As for comparing me to Jayne Mansfield, sheesh, vitruvius. If only. Not even 60 years ago. But possibly in my next life.

I just ran your previous comment through, ET. Yet the question remains, what is it exactly that we are to understand? I did WFF 'N Proof as a child, I'm holding it in my hand as I type this, and I've read "Sign as a WFF". The question remains, what's your point ~ and be careful now ~ I want to know the answer to that question in a sense that a Perry Mason jury could understand, not because I disagree with you, but because I want others to understand what it is that's so beautiful about what you've been doing.

This whole thing is wayout of myleague. But I do have One question and it is not meant as an insult whatsoever:

ET, how old are you?

Ah, gosh, whine, weep, vitruvius - what are we to understand? It's 11:45 pm; I want to go to bed; I want to read a simplistic mystery story (the only type I can understand)..I want..

My point about the Sign as a Wff, or indeed, my point about informational processes as semiosic processes is..let's see.

First, don't look at 'things' as isolate distinct units but as 'forms of matter/energy'. Think of an atom, a plant, a lion..as mass that is moulded into a particular Form. How? What's the formula?

Is it purely random? Mechanical? Think about it. How is it that..well, that grass turns into a cow. Always. How can the cow do that? What format of organization..that makes a cow, a cow..keeps it..a cow? So, there's some kind of continuity, a patterning, going on. Something quite rational and organized.

Second, this suggests that our universe and everything in it is an action of meaning, of mind, of reason. It is not a random act; it is not mechanical - although, both randomness and mechanical interactions do have important and really vital roles to play in the whole shebang.

Third, by defining our universe and everything in it as a process of 'mind', I am suggesting that what is going on is a constant organized, coherent, networked, transformation of energy-to-matter, or really, loosely organized mass to more complex mass..and back to loose..and back to complex.. Bacteria, fish, snakes, plants...

And, these 'masses', these Forms, seem to be interactive and relational..In fact, networks seem to be vital.

Fourth, So, what we have is a process where 'mass' is formed, is organized, into 'well formed Forms'.I call one Form a Sign. By WFF, I mean that these Forms are stable; hydrogen atoms are always in the same format. Lions are born as, well, as lions. According to a formula, a pattern-of-organization.

Fifth, this process of forming 'formulae' or patterns is not predetermined; there's no essentialism, no historicism, but, there emerges over time, 'normative habits of organization' which emerge, partly randomly and partly via constraints from existing patterns..and these patterns are all networked together. So, oxygen molecules are always formed the same way. Water molecules are always formed the same way.

And, in a more complex picture, these Forms are interactive and relational with each other. It's as if the whole area is filled with different Forms, different and yet, deeply related to each other. So, in a grassland area , wildebeest and bison require grasslands; the three are networked 'formulae', and lions are in the picture as well.

The universe operates as a self-organized process of transforming loosely organized mass to more complex organized mass. The process operates within 'formulae' or patterns of organization that evolve over time. And these patterns of organization are all networked together.

It's a very 'reasoned' process; not haphazard at all.

What's the purpose of transforming mass to formed matter,, ie, to 'Signs', which are organized repetitive Forms? To prevent entropic dissipation of energy. Semiosis, or the transformation of energy to mass, operating in networks of interrelated formulae - has one function. To prevent the entropic dissipation of energy in our universe.

Entropy exists..to prevent 'freezing of forms'..but that's another story.

Enough. I'm going to read a simplistic mystery story. I read the end first; I can't stand the tension otherwise.

While we wait for signs from the heavens (or is that the heavenly?)

Motion Mountain - the adventure of physics http://www.motionmountain.net/
Think of it as this millennium’s Feynman Lectures.

For an different perspective, ponder Augustine’s City of God http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.toc.html

Shall we also invoke the Dante triptych? Nah, let’s visit Pournelle at Chaos Manor (The original blog) http://www.jerrypournelle.com/, recall his “Inferno” and note that the long anticipated sequel has hit the strands...“Escape from hell” http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Hell-Larry-Niven/dp/0765316323

And one if by land http://www.oath-keepers.blogspot.com/

Wow! I'm with Gord.
I did try to get my pea brain around some of that stuff ET.
Gotta say, it's mind boggling.
For me, I believe the historical account of Christ Jesus, and He proves the existence of God, who is responsible for the tangible scietific order in the world, and the spiritual as well.
You should think about Him sometime.

Gord Tulk. I'm 112. Heh. So there. Does age matter?

And actually, if I can explain things with diagrams, I assure you, the theories are basic and simple. I mean that. Words obfuscate and mess up the whole thing. A few simple diagrams and people very readily understand. Why? Because it is really quite reasonable and basic.

Yeah. In certain circles, I'm considered well above average intellectually. Numerous friends and acquaintances come to me to get my opinion on even more numerous topics.

Yet, these last two days in the Cafe de Reader Tips, the only thing I've understood is that Jackie Gleason had a fake moustache and Jayne Mansfield has, well, let's just say she's a lovely girl.

Smarten up, Vit, and dumb it down!*

Don't actually -- it's fun being challenged. I just really wanted to turn that phrase, see?

To distill for ET: In the beginning was Logos. Logos was with God for Logos was God. Nothing that has been created was created apart from Logos. Of course Logos springs from Will and their relationship has been described as Father Son. However Will and Logos can not exist in and of themselves which brings us to the Spirit.

But of course as Vit pointed out Omnipotent, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Elephants don't exist and even if they do exist, it is much more fun to retain the blindfold, play with what seems to be an elephant's trunk and pretend .

*
i guess i truly am just a boring old knuckle-draggin' neocon...

"Whether the act was consensual or accidental likely will be investigated
by the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office, WUSA reported."

*

Got this from Hot Air Originaly: http://hotair.com/. Its pretty funny if true.

LONDON – An academic says he's found evidence that Britain's legendary outlaw Robin Hood wasn't as popular as folklore suggests.

Julian Luxford says a note discovered in the margins of an ancient history book contains rare criticism of the supposedly benevolent bandit.

According to legend, Robin Hood roamed 13th-century Britain from a base in central England's Sherwood Forest, plundering from the rich to give to the poor.

But Luxford, an art history lecturer at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, says a 23-word inscription in the margins of a history book, written in Latin by a medieval monk around 1460, casts the outlaw as a persistent thief.

More At:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090314/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_robin_hood

ET: there is a certain financial exercise that I try to get my clients to do tosave them money. It is really simple to do but the more I try to explain it the more I confuse them. It is really a learn by doing kind of thing as I suspect semiotics is in it's own way.

From my own perspective as a graduate in agriculture and the applied biology that it is I see things as being extremely simple in their construction at their very root but complex and very organized as they are built out into their final form with a near infinite number of random variables applied to them as they journeyed to reach that form.

It is the complexity and the simplicity that never violates certain rules of physics that taken in the perspective that there are a billion or more galaxies each with a billion or more planets that makes convinces me that there is no god in the classical religious sense but unable to disprove that there is no higher being that started all of this energy matter stuff.

I need a drink.

Don't actually -- it's fun being challenged. I just really wanted to turn that phrase, see?
Posted by: Yukon Gold

Same here, but then neo goes and drops 'that' link in and the words 'simple forms' takes on a whole new meaning. LOL Oh man, time for some sleep.

Vitruvius, can you remember the last song recorded by Armstrong before his death, and the circumstance surrounding it?

(No internet peeking!)

Link to the "Halls of Macademia" always freeze my computer, or take me right off the internet. My computer is about as old in computer years as Bob Hope was a week before he died and about as swift as Reagan towards the end, but still...
Gord (you sound like Carl Sagan): It's funny, some people find that the very bigness of the Universe persuades them that there must be a God, and some are sure it means there can't be One. Pascal said it scared him, but then he was a kind of terrified believer (I think).

no need to race, just measure fingers.

http://www.livescience.com/health/090312-finger-length-speed.html

damn that hormone that causes everything good and bad.

basicly the CBCpravda playbook.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/4990704/Nobody-listens-to-the-real-climate-change-experts.html

no fact checking ,just spout the agenda.you dont get much for a billion bucks a year anymore.

OMG what if it's a samsquanch.!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL_SL73iNFE&feature=related

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20090312181025/local/news/sasquatch-evidence-convincing-local-expert-says.html

I've been over the hill for more than a decade without even knowing it.

"Old age begins at 27: Scientists reveal new research into ageing"

In the same time that Ayn Rand has taken the country by inconvenient storm, more and more people are "Weary of Looking for Work, Some Create Their Own"

(At the very least, it's good for the résumé.)

I am just fascinated by the adventures of our British eco-explorers in the Arctic. The Catlin Arctic survey is trying to measure the thinning arctic ice over 1000 kms in 100 days. Sadly, they are running into large blocks of climate change, and the searing -41 degree temperatures are hampering their efforts to measure the shrinking ice. They have traveled a total of 30 kms in two weeks, so they will need to pick up the pace a bit. There are so many gems a this web site. See how giddy they get when they come across tracks from that big white teddy bear from the Coke commercials. One of their banners on their Twitter page says that the Catlin survey is "an expedition to determine the life span of the north pole". Now I'm no rocket surgeon but I'm pretty sure the North Pole will still be here long after all the eco-nuts have built their space ship and left the planet.
Kudos to the brave pilots from Resolute Bay who are supplying, and will likely need to rescue these nutbars. There is an attempt at resupplying them today - Sunday.
So pull up a hot cup of cocoa and watch the train wreck.
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/live_from_the_ice.aspx

Black Mamba: "Link to the "Halls of Macademia" always freeze my computer..."

Alas, the same thing happens to me, so I never link to neo's stuff, often much to my regret.

'Anything you can do, neo, to make getting to your site less traumatic?

I thought it was just our computer that didn't like neo's blog .
I really appreciate it...especially the cool way he disses the dawg and other losers.

I just click on and wait...for about 5 minutes. Works for me then and it's worth the wait.

gord tulk - Actually, my view is that 'morphology' or the 'science of forms', aka, semiotics, is simple and always simple.

It doesn't start out simple and become complex; it remains simple. By 'complexity' I don't mean an infinite number of possibilities. A complex system operates by controlling probabilities and reducing their number to prevent chaotic collapse.

That's why complexity is 'adaptive' and operates as a 'complex adaptive network system'. A complex adaptive system operates in a kind of 'borderline' phase. It can't have too many probabilities for that would overload the control mechanism. It can't have too few probabilities for that would freeze the system and it would be unable to change.

Some systems or realms are more 'frozen' than others. The chemical realm has fewer probabilities than the biological realm. So, biological systems can change rapidly while, hopefully, our oxygen Forms remain pretty stable.
The human realm is the most networked, sitting as it is within both the biological and chemical realm, and with the most probabilities.

The thing about a complex system is that it maintains control over the capacity for variation -which is always present and must be present - to enable adaptation. How does it maintain control?

By operating within a constraining set of normative Rules which inhibit variation and also by operating as an informational network...picking up data from other systems around it. This external data further constrains the system. It is not going to produce a plant requiring lots of water in a desert environment.

In my view, reality operates only within Forms (aka Signs). A Form is a relatively discrete particular and finite formation of mass. A single Form is formed by general long term Rules which are common to a collective. All hydrogen atoms follow the same Rule. Same with zebras. Right there, you have two realities: a particular mode and a common mode.

So, if I posit a universe of Forms, of morphologies, operating in two modes: the individual Form and also, a collective set of rules for 'morphing' that individual..The Rules are the 'knowledge base' of the System. I then move on to trying to figure out these two realities.

If reality exists as Forms, or measured mass, how are these Forms measured into existence?

So, I posit four spatial measurements and three temporal ones. And three modes. That's all.
Space is: internal, external, local, global
Time is: present, perfect, progressive
Mode is: potential, actual, necessary

That's it. These measurements set up Six Relations. A Relation is a measurement of mass. Obviously, an interaction between one Form and another Form.

BUT, to 'make a Form', you need three Relations. They operate in an irreducible triad of Input data, Mediation by Rules of Formation, Output Meaning.

That's the basic framework. It operates within the physical, biological and social realities. As I said, our human realm is more complex because it also includes the other realms of organization, the chemical and biological. AND, because its Forms have an added typology: the conceptual. The addition of Conceptual Forms to reality has greatly enhanced the capacity of the human realm to control (and mess up) its systems.

Now, I don't know if that explains things or further muddies the water.

Mark Stein has a great article on NRO right now:

"Just between you, me, and the old, the late middle-aged, and the early middle-aged: Isn’t it terrific to be able to stick it to the young? I mean, imagine how bad all this economic-type stuff would be if our kids and grandkids hadn’t offered to pick up the tab.

Well, okay, they didn’t exactly “offer” but they did stand around behind Barack Obama at all those campaign rallies helping him look dynamic and telegenic and earnestly chanting hopey-hopey-changey-changey. And “Yes, we can!”

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmM4NDRiNzEwOGRkNzI2MTQwODdkMDU1Nzc5N2M1YmE=

For libertarians, especially those with an interest in the U.S. Navy -- check out the Lexington Institute:

The Lexington Institute believes in limiting the role of the federal government to those functions explicitly stated or implicitly defined by the Constitution. The Institute therefore actively opposes the unnecessary intrusion of the federal government into the commerce and culture of the nation, and strives to find nongovernmental, market-based solutions to public-policy challenges. We believe a dynamic private sector is the greatest engine for social progress and economic prosperity.

Tenebris: Thanks for the links.

ET: "But possibly in my next life." Wonders never cease.

No irony allowed. No spitting allowed. No walking on the grass. No peaceful demonstrations allowed.
Please wear braces.
...-

"Montreal braces for anti-police brutality demonstration
Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay is hoping Sunday's anti-police brutality demonstration is peaceful." (msm)

Yes, I should have mentioned - I really love neo's blog, it's just that when I click on to it I'm reminded of that Seinfeld episode when Elaine moves into Jerry's apartment and learns that in order to get the shower to work she needs to turn it on, go out, do all her shopping, and then hope the hot water's up and running by the time she gets back. (I hope Kathy Shaidle's not reading this.)

no forms , modes ,etc.

just helical particle waves.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/4191/helicalwave.htm

most everything comes out of this simple postulation.

cal2 - a 'wave' is a Relation, in my analysis.

And you need three Relations, operating in a particular interactional format of Input/Mediation/Output to produce a particular unit of matter or a particle - such as a molecule.

Ah, an oasis of Muslim modernity and tolerance:

"Dubai issues list of prohibited public behavior"

Dubai authority issues a list of prohibited public behaviors
DUBAI (Alarabiya.net, AFP)

Playing loud music, dancing, nudity, kissing and even holding hands in public is considered inappropriate behavior under new guidelines laid down by the authorities of Dubai, according to a press report on Saturdafy.

The Dubai Executive Council issued a list of public behaviors that requires Dubai residents and visitors to respect the customs of the Muslim country and avoid what the council considers inappropriate behavior, according to the Arabic-language daily Al Emarat al-Youm.

" Pants and skirts have to be of appropriate length, and outside clothing should not expose body parts indecently and should not be transparent "

The rules, which apply to all public places, include a ban on all forms of nudity, playing music loudly and dancing, exchange of kisses between men and women—and even on unmarried couples holding hands.

Any breach of the guidelines, by nationals or expatriates, carries a possible prison penalty, the paper wrote.

.........................

Billions spent on making it a tourism mecca, aside, remind me why anybody in their right mind would want to go there?

J.E. Dyer, Hit 'em hard III

Israel can do a little to set back Iran’s nuclear programs. The US can do a lot.

In the last installment of our examination of options versus Iran, we looked at the “reverse” option: setting Iran’s programs back by some amount of time. Israel, given her various operational constraints, would be capable of setting Iran back by at least six months, and probably more (my assessment: a minimum of 12 months). She could do this by attacking at least two, but fewer than 10, key target complexes.

US forces, by contrast, have the ability to inflict much greater damage in the service of a “reverse” option objective. The most important factor in this from any standpoint is that the US is able to establish air superiority over Iran, and perform continuous strikes in sequence, at dozens of target complexes, and over a period of days or weeks...

Toronto Star poll on the CBC funding needs help:

http://www.thestar.com/comment#

Are you seriously suggesting, irwin daisy, that a tourist destination must include loud music, dancing, and nudity? If these are not part of the scene - you would condemn it as a tourist destination?

Must every tourist site be a Mexican or Brazilian student beach? What about oh..the Charles Bridge and Old Town in Prague, the canals and museums in Amsterdam, tea ceremonies in Japan...and so on.
The Jerusalem Wailing Wall - ah, now, there's a site for nudity and dancing. Westminster Abbey, the Canadian Houses of Parliament - equally great for loud music, nudity and dancing.

Dubai has its beaches but away from them, you are not expected to wear 'beach clothing'. It might be a reasonable suggestion to follow even in our own society.

Dubai and the UAE are trying, very deliberately, to move their economy and society into the modern era. That doesn't necessarily include a requirement for loud music, nudity and public dancing in all areas.

Good morning. I didn't intend to require an answer last night, ET, as I mentioned in the second paragraph of this entry first above. Indeed, I was myself reading Perry Mason and The Case of the Fan-Dancer's Horse at that time. Sorry I wasn't more clear. And I do thank you for the link to your Biological Organisms as Semiosic Systems paper (I've skimmed it and will return to it after I get some software out the door, which my customers are expecting this week) and for the explanations you have provided above. They should go at least some way toward helping folks get a better handle on this stuff.

Yet I will say one more thing, namely that if, as you say, there is no good primer on semiotics, then you and/or the field of your life's work have a problem. If I were you, even if I didn't want to undertake a new production myself, I would, as an elder diplomat and senior ambassador in that area, strongly encourage some of the younger practitioners to get to work to make something available, perhaps something along the line of a twenty- to thirty-minute TED-like style of video, to help people understand why this is so important, and, I think, possibly transformational for this century. Because if you folks don't explain what you're doing in a way that people in other fields can at least start to understand, without requiring them to learn a whole new vocabulary of terms of jargon, then it is not going to gain the exposure that I think it should have. Not here at SDA, I don't think, we've probably already pretty much used up our welcome on this topic, but I don't see why a YouTube production wouldn't work well.

And thanks for the Motion Mountain link, Tenebris, it looks like a good place to do something interesting with the World Wide Web, rather than just using it to complain about stuff one can't change anyway.

Well put, Vitruvius. I would disagree with you one particular point tacked on to the end, something you've said repeatedly here: when you complain about people complaining about "stuff one can't change anyway," a statement sometimes accompanied by an admonition to get away from politics, I'd just like to point out that governments, and therefore the course of nations, are in fact changed by complaints, in the aggregate sense. I would argue that the Liberals fell out of favour, and power, in part because people on the World Wide Web, Canadian version, complained about their behaviour.

One *can* change stuff by complaining -- about service, about fraud, about the attitudes of those in government, etc., etc. It's well and truly understood that any one person's "complaint" doesn't change the world, but on the other hand if no one complained about the behaviour that led to Adscam, for example, things would be a lot worse.

Viva the aggregate force of the endless chattering complaint.

"This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio -- 'You don't speak for me.'"

A most excellent point Vitruvius.
Because I thought it might seem churlish, I demurred from asking a question along the lines of "what practical outcomes might we expect" from this area of inquiry?".

I do however take some umbrage at your continuing anti-bitching meme relating to "stuff one can't change anyway". That strikes me as an odd comment from a guy who earlier excoriated people who said they weren't gonna vote anymore, presumably for the same reason. And didn't Warman's landmark failure come about because of all that "bitching" much of it aired here at sda? Does "bitching" not have the potential to change the zeitgeist, my good Zen-man?

right, vitruvius. By the way- did you get the two powerpoint presentations I sent to you, to your vitruvius2 link?

As for doing something - well, I've organized two conferences on it but the last one was about 7 years ago. The people whom I invite are in physics (including a Nobel laureate who is interested), chemistry, biology and computer science..oh..and also economics. Economics is a key area for complex systems studies.

The term 'semiotics' scares people witless; and of course, they immediately think of trash themes as found in postmodernism and Saussurian linguistics.

When you refer to 'information', the common understanding is either 'library science' or straight Shannon/Wiener communication systems.

Then, when you talk about semiotics or information or meaning as not confined to humans nor even animals..but also going on in plants, cells, and chemicals/physics..well, that scares a lot of people in these fields. They are working in a mechanical way.

I recall going to a conference on Biological Theory in Vienna. I went, not simply to give a paper but primarily because it was in Vienna. Ahh..what a city. But the conference! I was stunned by the 'mechanical' mindset of the majority, all welded to randomness and natural selection, all ignoring the latest developments in cellular communication, complex systems and so on.
Yes, there are some who are into informational processing in biological systems and you can see that in the SCIENCE journal.

As for getting funding for such a project - forget it. The people running Canadian research grants - and since Canada is a small country - they are a clique - are all old school and firmly reject any innovative ideas. Not only that, but when one is dealing with 'information' you are in a dead end.

I learned that I couldn't use the term 'semiotics' because that put me in their minds firmly into literature and films and women's studies. Naturally, they balked at funding something that included biologists and chemists and computer people.

But, when you try to get funding for 'information', they'll lock you into 'communication' and library science. Heh. And the same thing - their contempt for including biologists and physicists ...and people in economics..is open and boundless.

So, I've become extremely cynical. Oh - and when I was organizing conferences and funding etc, I learned that it was not only almost impossible to get funding but impossible to get Canadian researchers into the group. Where were all the most advanced thinkers in these areas? In Europe and the USA. Not Canada.

Since I required Canadians, in order to get funding, I really, really had to beg people to come on; they simply didn't think in this complex systems way. Canadian research in these areas was/is at least 20 years behind the times. You can even see this in the research journals. But I could get Europeans and Americans in a flash - and they were eager to develop these theories.

So, I know I ought to provide a primer for these theories - and YouTube or some visual means would be best...actually..a set of powerpoints would do it..because you absolutely need diagrams. But, I get rather cynical about it. I'll think about it. I think a set of Lectures..about ten..all powerpoint..would do it. Hmmm.