Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
action. Knowledge continues to be understood as “an ideal reproduction
of the external world serviceable for cooperative action thereon” (Childe
1956, 54). A distinction of knowledge from information, independently
developed in subsequent literature (Blair 2002, 1020-1021), is implied.
Childe's “ideal reproduction” is understood to include a degree of ide-
alization and also the active participation of receivers in reproducing
knowledge. In this context, idealization is realized in the abstraction and
simplification of elements of language and message transmission; active
participation and the useful nature of knowledge emerge in the utility
of the abstractions chosen for informing subsequent use and design of
information retrieval systems. The knowledge embodied in information
technology is acknowledged but treated as a given and as a basis for the
development of further knowledge. The embodied knowledge is received
in objectified form, as material technology (Warner 2004, 5-35).
Conceptions of Language
The conception of language implicit in the searches recounted above was
concisely articulated by Saussure in his
Course in General Linguistics
,
first published in 1916—far in advance of the possibilities of discovering
the use of words offered by modern technologies for information retrieval
(1916/1983, 65).
For some people, a language reduced to its essentials, is a nomenclature: a list of
terms corresponding to list of things. For example, Latin would be represented as:
Figure 5.1
Source: Saussure 1916/1983, 65.
