Agile Software Development
Автор: Alistair Cockburn /
INTRODUCTION The Impossibility of Communication
-
Часть 6
-
"Our discussion has led us to conclude that, biologically, there is no 'transmitted information' in communication. Communication takes place each time there is behavioral coordination in a realm of structural coupling. This conclusion is surprising only if we insist on not questioning the latest metaphor for communication. .. [in which] communication is something generated at a certain point. It is carried by a conduit (or tube) and is delivered to the receiver at the other end. Hence, there is a something that is communicated, and what is communicated is an integral part of that which travels in the tube. Thus, we usually speak of the "information" contained in a picture, an object, or more evidently, the printed word. .. . According to our analysis, this metaphor is basically false. .. . [e]ach person hears what he hears according to his own structural determination. .. The phenomenon of communication does not depend on what is transmitted, but on what happens to the person who receives it. And this is a very different matter from 'transmitting information. '"
To put it into words that are simpler, although perhaps less accurate biologically, each living being exists inside a membrane that transfers impinging events into internal signals, which initiate internal activities. It is really only the internal signals that the being "notices, " not the external signals. The surprising thing is that the internal signals can also be generated by activities and events inside the being!
A being that "notices" something cannot be sure whether that something originated from an internal or external signal. Thus we "see" images in dreams and hallucinations, when the eyes are closed. Maturana and Varela studied this effect in color vision, finding that we regularly see a color in a scene that does not explicitly contain that color. We generate the color's presence through internal mechanisms.
The "behavioral coordination in a realm of structural coupling" is the correlation between those things impinging on the membrane from the outside and the internal activities that follow. Obviously, we wouldn't last very long as beings if there weren't a fairly good correlation between the outside events and the internal activities generated. It is important to recognize, however, that the internal activities are equally determined by the internal state of the being, its "own structural determination. " The information received is not what impinges upon the receiver, but what happens inside the receiver afterwards.
To put this into a concrete example, consider that someone runs into the room and shouts "Fire! " in Japanese. A Japanese-speaking listener receives a lot of information, and immediately leaps up and runs to the exit. The Japanese person next to him, who happens to be asleep, receives no information at all. The external stimulus was never converted into an internal signal A person who speaks no Japanese notices that someone came in and shouted something but received no particular information from the sounds uttered. What each person receives from the shout depends on her internal condition.
Internal Restructuring
Information at the receiver's side is not a static, externally determinable quantity but rather a transient, dynamic personal quantity. The information received is a measure of the internal restructuring that follows the impingement of the signal. It is the quantity representing the size of the change in the receiver's predictive model of the world after receiving it.
Consider these few examples to see this in action:
"I am thinking of a set of numbers. The set includes 1, 3, 7, 11, 13, …”
At this point the listener has built up a predictive model that holds those numbers, the fact that they are in the set, and that 5 and 9 are conspicuously missing. They are conspicuously missing, because the typical person constructed a second model, "the odd numbers without 5 and 9, " alongside the first.
The speaker continues with: ". .. 15 is in the set. .. ”
On hearing this, the model grows by one element, that "15 is in the set. " No new patterns show up.
The speaker continues with: ". .. 5 and 9 are in the set. .. ”
At this point, the model changes dramatically, because the sentence contained a lot of "information" for the listener, much more than the earlier arrival of the number 15. Instead of adding two more to the pile of numbers in the set, the listener reduces the model to be "the odd numbers. " Hearing that 5 and 9 are in the set added more than two small units information: It converted two medium-sized, competing models into a single, small model. The change in the size of the predictive model was relatively large.
The "information received, " being a measure of the momentary change in the receiver, is a transient quantity. Hearing the same sentence twice does not bring the same information the second time. Typically, the receiver's internal predictive model does not change as much, because the restructuring is usually smaller.
Suppose the speaker repeats, ". .. 5 and 9 are in the set. .. ”
The listener already knows that 5 and 9 are in the set. At this point, the speaker can keep naming odd numbers without disturbing the predictive model of the listener. Each new number adds increasing certainty about the model, but not much more.
If the speaker names an even number, then the listener scrambles to recall which odd numbers got named. He must throw away the "odd numbers" model and remember each number individually again. The moment of adding an even number provides a lot of information for the listener.
Touching into Shared Experience
-
Закладки
1. Project name, job of person interviewed (the interviewee stays…
Crystal Clear is the most tolerant, low-ceremony small-team…
The main question is, if you were funding this project, which…
For us as designers, it was possible to express both propositional…
In arguing for the Theory Building View, the basic issue…
It follows that on the Theory Building View, for the primary…
Walk around your place of work. Notice · The convection…
On a new project, I would use Crystal Orange as a base methodology…
Using the planning game in this way, the sponsors can properly…
13. (FIRST TECHNIQUE). .. your sword now having bounced upward,…
The third problem is absence of feedback from the downstream…
The surprising thing about human success modes is how nebulous…
Types of Methodologies Rechtin (1997) categorizes methodologies…
Games are not just for children, although children also play…
While writing, reading, typing, or talking, we pick up traces…
The complete discussion about when and where to apply concurrent…