Thursday, March 1, 2018

Cyberspace and Information Highway

The synonymity in current parlance of 'cyberspace' and 'information highway' is perhaps ironic. The root of 'cyber' is the same as that of 'govern', so, accordingly, 'cybernetics', its introduction into contemporary culture, signifies the autonomy of operations in a system.  'Form' means 'shape', 'pattern', etc., so the literal meaning of 'to inform' is 'to communicate Form to', or, in other words, 'to exercise Formal Causality on'.  Now, Autonomy and Formal Causality intersect in Kant's doctrine, and, arguably, in Aristotle's, as well.  So, that in common parlance Cyberspace and Information each connote Content is antithetical to the more rigorously derived intersection of their etymological ancestors.

No comments:

Post a Comment