New Books in Science, Technology, and Society Peter Harries-Jones, “Upside-Down Gods: Gregory Bateson’s World of Difference” (Fordham UP, 2016)
8 snips
Oct 4, 2018 Peter Harries-Jones, an expert on Gregory Bateson's work, explores various fascinating topics in this podcast. He discusses Bateson's contributions to biosemiotics, his challenges with logical types and Darwinian orthodoxy, and his emphasis on the sign-mediated context and meaning of messages. The podcast also delves into the connections between semiotics and information theory, Bateson's examination of signs and context in his work, and the evolution of redundancy into pattern. Overall, an incisive and enlightening conversation on Bateson's world of difference.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Early Anthropological Social Networks
- Peter Harries-Jones recounts his early anthropological work with the Manchester School in Zambia, focusing on social networks.
- He independently argued for an interactive dyadic social network approach beyond existing quantitative methods.
Mind as Ontological Foundation
- Bateson inverts traditional ontology by positing mind as foundational, not emergent.
- This challenges algorithmic, information-theory views that exclude meaning and context.
Double Coding and Context
- Bateson underscores the importance of double coding: digital and analog forms of communication.
- Context emerges through recursive, nonlinear patterns of expectancy in communication.