INFORMATION: its material media
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1679 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented, General information |
J.M. RODRIGUEZ DELGADO points out the necessity to avoid confusing information with the various types of media used to transmit it: “. paper and ink can be used as media to carry non specific messages of quite different significations” (1992, p.162). He adds: “… the functions carrying messages must be distinguished… from mental manifestations. Thus, for example, the eyes and the optical nerves are needed in order to see, but they work only as non specific carriers and transducers of visual forms, which are in effect recognized by the occipital lobe and other cerebral regions” (Ibid).
In the same way, an electromagnetic wave may carry visual or auditive messages of very numerous different types, which can, or not, be decoded by a given receptor. To understand a message in Russian, one needs to know Russian, and not merely to hear correctly the sounds or see the cyrillic characters.
It is thus obvious that the understanding of information is not merely a matter of registering the medium, but requires the learning of the specific codes.