Dennett on Semantic Information and Shannon Information
In his recent book, From Bacteria to Bach and Back (2017), Dennett utilizes memetics to develop his ideas on consciousness. I haven't finished it yet. I paused after 120 or so pages, because I have concerns with his preliminary discussion of information.There are areas where I agree with Dennett, but I have problems with his discussion of both Shannon information and semantic information. The problems with the latter are unfortunately predictable given Dennett's longstanding approach to intentionality. I. Shannon Information In a chapter entitled "What is Information?,” Dennett follows a seventy-year tradition of making a strong distinction between semantic information and Shannon information. Here is how Claude Shannon (" A Mathematical Theory of Communication ," 1948) introduces the distinction: The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point. Frequently the...