Knowledge versus Information It seems that the definition of data/knowledge/information is a little obscure and off course different for may of us, so let s try to compare our thinking on this subject. Another question is do you think that information could be free ?? HARMA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Knowledge versus Information Thursday, 29-Oct-98 11:11:04 Isn't all information free? no,yes? When I buy a book, do I pay for the information, or for the labor,materials,effort put into making the book.Of course the authors work in gathering the information is included in that price. yes,no? If something is free does that implie value? I belive you stated prior that my employer pays for my time ,and not for my knowledge. If I work for the information I seek(search for it), this takes my time.Does it now cost me,or is it still free?? no,yes? Free is a funny word that holds various meanings for various persons. "Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose" "Your always free to change your past,present,or future" I think that if your willing to apply yourself(work) you can find a source for most any information you require for "free". Information will always cost someone!!!! There are a great many people who contribute information to this site(and they should be commended)for free,in one way or another they paid the price for the information you are getting. The saying "free for me" comes into play but,there was still a cost for the information. yes,no? Hey, maybe i'm just full of it!!!! If you want to see freedom of information check out this: http://www.wired.com/news/news/email/tip/politics/story/15864.html Well we all see different things differently,and,I hope we always will. Oh,by the way, was this a "free flow of information"?? ;~) name_text ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Reality cracking: > Knowledge versus Information Thursday, 29-Oct-98 14:26:45 Hey, that's just what I asked myself some days ago: what's the difference between knowledge and information? Well, I haven't had very much time to think about it, but maybe the difference is as follows: Maybe information is something you heard of/read and you can reproduce, and maybe is knowledge is information you really understand and can work with. I'm sure, you know guys having lots of information and are talking even more about it, but do they really have knowledge??? Just my first thoughts, but an interesting topic! Would like to hear more and other ideas! blackbird ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Reality cracking: Knowledge versus Information Thursday, 29-Oct-98 15:47:06 Greetings Crackers,+, Forget the $ aspect of knowledge for a momment, that's just a miss-leading conception created by a 'civilised' society to add some sort 'value' to information in general so that it can be given a level of importance that people can identify with. Information, IMHO, refers to raw knowledge, it can represent anything we wish and may, or may not come in a complete form. Knowledge can be thought of as information that has been processed, where we are then able to use and build upon according to our personal needs and requirements. Again, taking the $ value away from this equation, we can summerize that any 'value' attributed to knowledge is based on our own personal idea of what it is worth to US. Irrespective of 'how' we may come by information, it's how it effects us and we in turn, how we then use this knowledge to effect our environment as well as ourselves. The most powerful force in this universe is not our tools of destruction or supernova's or black holes but the 'thought' of an intellegent specie to change it's environment. The more refined the knoweldege, the clearer the whole picture will be. To build a house someone has to have a had 'thought' and in order for that 'thought' to become a reality requires knowledge of how to build that house, but even that requires information first to realize that a house is needed and that it will help us to survive against the environment we find ourselves in. Hope this makes sense?. The Sandman ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Reality cracking: > Knowledge versus Information Saturday, 07-Nov-98 10:43:09 Wow! That's a "can of worms"-type philosophical question. Here are my thoughts.. Yes I believe that information could be free and I believe that quite a lot of information is already free. +Fravia's site is full of free information, and so is Yellow Pages. No I'm not being flippant - they really do both contain information. Different sorts of information sure, but information nontheless. However I think there will always be "interested parties" who don't want you to know certain pieces of information and who will try and stop you. And I don't think that all information should be freely available anyway. By that I don't mean we should have to pay for some pieces of information rather than others. What I mean is that some information should be restricted because it'll get really rather good people killed or hurt. What about defining the concepts of data, information and knowledge then? Here's a stab at doing data and information. I think that broadly speaking you could say that the difference between data and information is that data is information without context or meaning. Here's an example to clarify what I meab. The bit string: 0010001001100010 on it's own it doesn't tell you anything. What does it mean? Nothing, unless you know what it's supposed to represent. Without knowing some other things about the bit string (i.e. without a context) it's just data. Now if I tell you that this bit string represents the date 04/04/98 it becomes slightly more meaningful: you might have a go at finding out how it represents a date. If I now tell you that from right to left the first 7 digits represent the year, the next four represent the month and the next five represent the day the picture is complete. The bit string is now a piece of information - it has a meaning - and you can go away and use it. However that leaves several other concepts unexplored, like "meaning" and "context", so perhaps it doesn't help at all? As for knowledge and information, think about this question and you might get a clue as to where the answer lies. How would you teach someone the meaning of the word "knowledge", how would you teach someone the meaning of the word "information" and what are the differences between the two. Au revoir oh my brothers. Fight ignorance. The Starling ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Re: Knowledge versus Information - an analogy? Monday, 16-Nov-98 07:21:51 hi guys, again. I've wrote something about the analogy to fravia, and maybe he ignored it; ok, nevermind. I can understand. Here you are a possible analogy, between some analythical geometry and information-level. It could be not very exact, but just a tip... 1.point exist/not exist (0 dimensions) == virtual info (like the string 001100011 without usable desciption) 2. point exist/not exist (lying on some axe/curve) (1 dimensions, point on axe/curve) == raw information (the Curve/axe is the Description; yoy may have many curves through 1 point - many descriptions of a same fact) 2a.set of axes/curves == set of information 3.plane through axe/surface through curve == meaning, explanation (info about the info, i.e. some knowledge); you may have many meanings/understandings for a same fact/information ...... if any one is interested, please go further. This could be a good PhD IF the above analogy could be well established... Bye SvD