GEB Ch6 - Information, Meaning, and Intrinsic Context

This chapter explores the location of meaning, questioning whether it resides inherently within a message or arises from the interaction between the message and an observer. The chapter uses examples like music records, DNA (genotype/phenotype), and ancient texts to illustrate the complexities of information-bearing and revealing. It introduces the idea of frame, outer, and inner messages as layers of communication requiring different levels of decoding. The text also discusses the "jukebox" theory of meaning and argues against it by suggesting that intelligence, as a natural phenomenon, is equipped to interpret messages. Finally, it examines the universality of meaning through thought experiments involving extraterrestrial encounters and analyzes the inherent logic in different forms of communication, such as music and genetic code. The included dialogue, "Chromatic Fantasy, And Feud," presents a playful yet philosophical argument between Achilles and the Tortoise about the nature and identification of contradiction, indirectly touching upon the complexities of language and shared understanding