Intro: what does ADTMAD mean?
The snappy aphorism “a difference that makes a difference”* gets to the absolute heart of everything
I think — and I mean everything. It’s not only an explanation of what information itself is hewn out of (thus decisive in understanding how the information processing of our minds work), but I strongly suspect that it is the key idea that will help unlock how physical reality itself ‘functions’ — the physical universe of space and time.
The aphorism is artful. It avoids asking “difference in what?”, perhaps because that isn’t what ultimately matters. Difference itself might turn out to be as or more important than what two or more ‘things’ constitute that difference.
I acknowledge that difference always requires an entity, indeed at least two. But then the focus is on how entity is defined. For instance, could entities themselves result merely from a relational dynamic of similarity/difference in what would otherwise be ‘nothing’ (static sameness)? What is the simplest possible account for “a difference in what?”.
These and similar metaphysical questions will be turned over on a monthly basis on this blog. By the end of the year I’m anticipating that this process will amount to a more integrated text or ‘object of ideas’.
* Attributed to Gregory Bateson
(based upon a similar dictum by physicist Donald MacKay).
By the way, well done for finding your way here.
Comments welcome…
assocultex@gmail.com