When INFO meets philosophy, pt. 2

So, I met the beast of which I spoke earlier earlier. It was lurking in INFO 300. Examine the assumptions we are told we must make when using Brenda Dervin's "Sense Making" model:

• Reality is neither complete or constant but rather filled with fundamental and pervasive discontinities or gaps.
• Information is not a thing that exists independent of and external to human beings but rather is a product of human observing.
• All information is subjective.

Item 1 must be taken in context: "reality" in this sense should be read "the data a person can observe." The underying assumption in this model is that reality is only the collection of data that a person can observe, and implicitly that all information pertains to this reality.

Point two assumes that meaning only exists in relationship to humans. This precludes the existence of God. Naturally, I would argue that information is dependent on God and God alone, and that it is a product of his creating. There are still gaps and discontinuities between what a human being can or does observe and what actually exists; however, all data are to be viewed as a potential transfer of information from God to us. Whether or not the gap pertaining to that transfer is bridged is irrelevant; the information still exists as knowledge in the mind of God, and exists potentially insofar as the data of God's creation reveal it.

I really enjoy theorizing about information science. So far, I have found it to be a perfect combination of my interests. Unfortunately, I have to synthesize new, Christ-centered models of thought instead of being able to learn them. So things sometimes go a little bit slower.