A Basis for Understanding the Genesis and Evolution of Culture Differences Between Divergent Communities of Interest
Synesis: A Journal of Science, Technology, Ethics, and Policy 2010; 1:G4-9
Understanding the processes of creating and communicating meaning gives insight into the genesis and evolution of culture gaps. Meaning making involves transformation functions that operate on perceptions in perception space to create meaningful interpretations which are metaphor, extended metaphor and collections of metaphor in interpretation space. The process recursively creates interpretations which when taken together with sensory perceptions are unavoidably biased world views. When we attempt to communicate between world views, this bias creates an uncertainty which acts in ways similar to Shannon entropy in communications systems. This suggests necessary and sufficient conditions for overcoming the uncertainty. The concept has application to any negotiation which involves the communication of ideas between parties.
Key words: culture gap, metaphor, interpretation, communication, world view, Shannon Entropy.