GRAVITY ONE -- Wednesday, September 16, 1992

Yes, this will be an everyday thing.

Since the last note, our number has dropped by two. Again let me
emphasize, if the style or content of these messages is not your cup of
tea, or if you don't have time for a page worth of propaganda each
morning, then respond to this note and I'll take you off the list.

For those still curious, I'm describing a method for organizing,
communicating, and manipulating information called Gravity.

Now, information is a tricky issue, and I almost used that big bad scary word, knowledge, in its place. It is a scary word . . . at least it
scares me. Gives me stage fright whenever I'm put in a position where I have to tell people I "know" something.

Now my philosophy friends tell me that knowledge is "justified true
belief", and that really scares me. Justification is really scary. I
studied some logic way back when, and have dabbled here and there with reason, and rhetoric, and I suppose I could go the usual route with what I'm doing and be formal about it, up on my pulpit, and say, "This is the way it be, dudes and dudettes."

Nope, though. Can't do it. It's against the nature of the whole
endeavor, and besides it'd give me a terminal case of the willies. I hope some of you can relate. It's not just stage fright, but also the deep
down fear that in professing to know something I'll forget my own
ignorance. And once that happens, once I've lulled myself into believing that I know what I'm talking about, I've stopped growing. I've stopped learning. As Mr. Thoreau says, "How can he remember his ignorance -- which his growth requires -- who has so often to use his knowledge?"

So: Gravity has not to do with knowledge but information. To use a nice little distinction brought to me by Gregory Bateson, information is "any difference that makes a difference."

Recall from the last note: "Naming Is Changing".

I once had a long and stupid argument with a friend of mine some years back about this "Naming is Changing" thing. People take issue and get uptight about semantic slants, particular ways of viewing words, and though we're using the same words we misunderstand each other anyway. He was convinced that I was saying "Naming is doing something about the world." He took "change" to mean "constructive change."

I'd say, "When you name something, you've changed something."
He'd say, "No way. Just pointing your finger at a thing does nothing."
I'd say, "Well maybe not out there, but it's changed in my head."

It took many hours back and forth before he began to see that I was
talking about changes of a conceptual nature. It took many more hours before he began to see that conceptual change is really the only kind of change there is, and that names are crucial to conceptual change.

Tomorrow: Gravity names.

(BTW -- one of us told me that I was rambling, and that it may be
distracting. I was asked to be more succinct. I respect this response,
and will limit my readers to a daily diet of about a page. As for when
you'll get meat and when you'll get sauce, I cannot say. Tomorrow will have some meat. Today was mostly sauce. I for one like sauce with my meat, but others feel differently. Some dislike digressions. I've found digressions to be essential to speaking the truth without killing it.)

From: Bob Barnes, Frank Harvey, Steven Goldman, Joe Lucia
To: Norman Girardot, Steven Goldman