Posted: Apr 09, 2017 4:19 pm
Thommo wrote:Corkey wrote:Thommo wrote:Corkey wrote:"The map is not the territory." - Alfred Korzybski It's a gateway if you choose to use it.
A printed map of the Earth manifests in the arrangement of multicolored inks on a piece of paper, but the map is not ink and paper. A digital map manifests in the arrangements of contrasting pixels on a computer screen, but the map is not the pixels or the screen. "The map is not the territory," it's not a metaphor. Simply put, the software is not the hardware.
I don't think I agree with this, and I'm fairly sure it's not what the quote means.
A map being distinct from the territory does not mean that a map is not ink and paper (or patterns of pixels depending on the specific map).
A map printed on a piece of paper manifests in the arrangements of the inks. The map is not matter, paper, ink, and computer hardware are.
This seems intractable. My whole point was that I don't accept your leap there. There's no connection between the premise that there's a need for arranging the paper and inks correctly to create the map and the conclusion that the map is not the paper and ink (when so arranged).
You haven't eliminated, or even considered the possibility, you've assumed it away and I don't think I agree with that.
Software is not hardware, words are not thoughts. The message is not the medium, only carried by it.
You guys do know that each and every word spoken and written was invented by Mankind don't you? If I wrote to you in a language you don't understand, you wouldn't receive the message. You could see the territory, ink and paper (matter), but the message is not ink and paper, its our intangible thoughts that we convey through language. Intangible because they require a medium to manifest. We don't normally think about our body as being the medium, but it is. We project our thoughts with our hands, a look, a shrug, when we write or when we speak, all the time.