Dear Luke and all,
Do books contain or transmit knowledge?
A simple yes to both question is what Mike has stated. I do agree. A book
may function as material object which contains certain information. And as
and when a human being accesses it, it is transmitting information.
We can bring in an interesting analogy with a recorded music. A gramaphone
record or any form of audio record when kept in isolation works as a
container. of that recorded voice. When it starts playing and a human being
hears it, it is transmittting. We can extend the debate to another realm.
Suppose this record is placed in outer space where there is no one to hear
it and the audio is being played back. Then, is it transmitting the
recorded information?
One fundmental question which I would like some one to adress is how to
distinguish between information and knowledge in this scenario. What is it
that is in the book? Is it information? or Knowledge? When does information
become knowledge? Is it some form of human intervention that converts
information to knowledge. If it is so then when does book become container
of information? When does it become a container of knowledge?
Does this happen when a human being starts reading it? Is transmission the
process that converts information to knowledge?
Regards,
Leenus Kannoth
Associate Faculty, Communication Design,
Kerala State Institute of Design,
Chandanathope P.O,
Kollam-691014, Kerala
India.
Ph:9447708592
On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 6:33 AM, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Mike and all,
>
> My observation is that it is much more common for different people to
> interpret collections of words (or images) very differently and do so
> dependent on their prior backgrounds, assumptions, culture, cultural,
> social and personal conditioning.
>
> One example is the word formulations and symbols of one cultured 'tribe'
> are interpreted very differently by those of another cultured 'tribe'.
> Compare for example, the different positions on national flags, religious
> symbols and literalised beliefs, clothing styles cultural behaviour....
> thios can currently be seen very overtly in differences in interpretation
> of texts and images of Muslim culture and US culture by members of each
> culture.
>
> Much the same differences can be seen in the writing in any book. See, for
> example, wide differences in understanding of the works of James Joyce,
> Al-Ghazali, Freud, Shakespeare, Guy DeBord (Larry Law is entertaining on
> this in Spectacular Times - e.g. https://libcom.org/library/1-
> 2-images-everyday-life ).
>
> We as individuals create and impose meaning and create our individualised
> knowledge on that basis - books and other objects are simply stimuli
> interpretable in whatever way we wish or ar conditioned to behave.
> Consistency of interpretation is only a result of consistency of
> conditioning/brainwashing/enculturated dogma - not the appearance of the
> object. It is evidenced perhaps most clearly in the way people can
> interpret the outcomes of the Post-modern generator as reasonable writing,
> or interpret as reasonable political argument the outcome of programs of
> random automated writing of pseudo presidential speeches.
>
> Mike wrote,
> <snip>'Research and common experience amply demonstrate that a particular
> group of words, or a particular set of images done a certain way (my area
> of study) tend to evoke (my preferred word for how signs stimulate meaning)
> very similar ideas in people attending to them. The better the writing or
> designing the more consistent the responses. If there was nothing "there'
> in the book the response would not be consistent. Because it is consistent
> there must be something there. But the something is not functional until
> someone attends to it.'<end snip>
>
> Regards,
> Terry
>
> ==
> Dr Terence Love
> MICA, PMACM, MAISA, FDRS, AMIMechE
> Director
> Design Out Crime & CPTED Centre
> Perth, Western Australia
> [log in to unmask]
> www.designoutcrime.org
> +61 (0)4 3497 5848
> ==
> ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
>
>
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