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ISSN 1726-670X

http://www.triple-c.at

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Are “the semantic aspects” actually “irrelevant to the

engineering problem”?

José María Díaz Nafría1, Basil M. Al Hadithi2

Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio, Information and Communication Technologies, 28691 Villanueva de la

Cañada (Madrid), SPAIN; E-mail: 1 jnafria@uax.es, 2 bmal@uax.es

Abstract: At the beginning of his famous “Mathematical Theory of Communication” (MTC), Shannon removes the semantic

questions from the technical task, and such exoneration seems to be commonly accepted, even for those who certainly care

for ‘semantic questions’. However, the MTC communication model itself is built upon this fundamental assumption, which at

the same time is used in other information theories and –even with wider practical consequences– as a design pattern for

the Information Technologies.

At the present time, when human communication is more and more dependant with respect to information technologies, the

suitability of the communication model used to design the technological systems has to be put into scope. None essential

element needed to establish a proper human communication should be omitted; otherwise this technology could isolate

people, betraying its hypothetical purpose. Comparing the technological model to others based on several pragmatic

theories of communication (emerged in linguistics, semiotic, psychology and anthropology), the insufficiency of the

technological model is shown, pointing out some elements that a new model should not forget.

Keywords: Mathematical Theory of Communication, Communications and Information Technologies

Acknowledgement: The authors wish to express their gratitude to Professor Mercedes Osorio for her generous effort in

revising the article.

he fundamental

problem of

communication is that of

reproducing at one point either

exactly or approximately a message

selected at another point. Frequently the

messages have meaning; that is they

refer to or are correlated according to

some system with certain physical or

conceptual entities. These semantic

aspects of communication are irrelevant

to the engineering problem.” (Shannon,

1948)

We assume

that Information and

Communication Technologies (ICT) enrich the

communication abilities of people and

societies having access to them. This

assumption, going along with the intrinsic

benefit of having the ability to communicate

better, lead us to a simple equation according

to which these technologies may only be

good, and therefore the only quest to solve is

usually how to maximize them –optimizing, of

course, the resources that are needed-.1 How

ever, according to the communication model

used for technical design, these technologies

just mediate in a communication system

(between source and destination) which exists

previously. The virtue of this mediating system

is –as a good glass- to be transparent, or

even to achieve that communicants can be

further away, or in circumstances without

direct visibility. Hence, as a system of glasses

and mirrors properly polished and structured

as to become non-visible.

1 We will generally focus here more on technologies

for information transmission than on those devoted to

processing or storing. Nevertheless, it should be aware

that transmission is always a fundamental problem for

any ICT, even those of processing and storing.

tripleC 7(2): 300-308, 2009

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If the virtue of the information transmission

system is measured with regard to the

transparency property, it has much sense for

the technique to forget the goodness of the

communication, which it mediates. That

should be just a problem for system users,

while the system itself has to carry out the

neat function of delivering in one side what

was given on the other. Therefore, it does not

have to report in case the users do not

understand each other. This is, in our opinion,

the background of the feigning ignorance with

regard to the semantic aspects that Shannon

and Weaver preach for technical duties. In

this sense their recommendation is honest

(Shannon, 1949, 1964; Weaver, 1972).

However, in order to validate the transparency

model, this should be sustained by a previous

communication model according to which

something is –in essence- emitted in an

extreme and it is immediately afterwards

received in the other. From this point of view,

transparency would be perfectly possible. But,

what about if communication might respond to

a much more complex reality, in which it is not

possible to consider information as something

just traveling in the sequences of signals (no

matter how intricate its structure is). What

about if ICT, assuming this fundamental

mechanism of communication, might cut down

some of its essential elements? If that were

the case, what might happen is that the trust

put on these technologies would actually

isolate people and social groups?

Undoubtedly, the number of signals or data

interchange is incomparably larger than

without ICT. Nevertheless, what about if the

absence of means that allow to stage

essential components of communication

would have the consequence that the

magnificent flow of transmitted signals would

not easily participate –or even were just

impossible to do it– in a genuine

communication process?

As it can be seen, what we are calling into

question, is not the usage given to

technologies (which can always be regarded

as something external to them), but the

possible fact that they would just commit a

planning error. We try to show how the

contrast of the simple model of

communication –massively used in the design

of communication technologies- with more

complex models as those arisen from

linguistic pragmatic theory, cultural semiotics,

schizophrenia, etc., may help to discuss these

questions (Bustos, 1999; Eco, 1979; Bateson,

1956). Using these models, it could be said

that an appropriate channel to transmit

communicative intention or what may be

called –in extension of Austin notion-

communicative force… is frequently missing.

These absences might have the consequence

that the magnificent torrent of sign-vehicles,

which arrives to afflicted audiences, would

finally lose its authentic communicative

potential, and these would not know what to

do with it. Moreover –being under the urgency

of communicating– so many gadgets would

not help –as it is believed– in order to achieve

the desired effect of representations,

requests, advices, declarations, claims...

With respect to these reasons, a

communication system model closer to the

communicative reality may be essayed. We

believe (in spite of the laudable Shannon’s

intention of simplicity) that this model should

not give up semantic questions so lightly.

1. Simple (technical) communication

model

We will call “simple model” to that

essentially used in the realm of

communication technologies, as the one

described by Shannon (1949). This model –as

it will be shown later- enjoys a long-lived

history which rests sinks probably in some

rationalism excesses. According to this model,

communication is basically a process in which

codified messages are sent by means of a

certain code, known or agreed by the source

and destination of such messages. They

reach the receiver relatively polluted and,

depending on code quality as well as noise

amount, messages will be decoded with better

or worse luck in the receiver2. If the system is

properly designed, messages are decoded

just as they were in the source (or with an

2

This model is also commonly accepted in

contemporary semiotics, stressing code concept.

Nevertheless, in this field, several alternatives have been

proposed trying to avoid some lacks of the simple model.

That is, for example, the case of Sperber and Wilson

proposal (1986), to which we will later come back.

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José María Díaz Nafría, Basil Al Hadithi

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irrelevant

variation)

and

therefore

communication succeeds joyfully.

According to the model, it does not seem to

be needed much more than the clean arrival

of the messages to destination in order to

diagnose the success of communication.3 The

technician says that going further is getting

mixed up in matters to which he has not been

called, and therefore he washes his hands.

He supposes that everything else are sense

problems probably appealing philosophy or

even users, and he ensures his roll can only

be honestly played if the technological tools

deal with carrying the messages to destination

not getting mixed up in content questions. In

other words, he must behave as a good

postman who does not rake into the content of

the post he is carrying. However, it is possible

that the assumptions sustaining this model

have consequences in the actual success of

communication that the technician does not

suspect, lying in a simple perspective error.

Figure 1: Simple Communication Model

From some semiotic points of view this

model describes technical communication

properly, but it has a limited metaphorical

value for general human communication. This

objection, which critical value sides with

semiotics may lead us to believe that the

simple model is approved for technical

developments.4 However, the fact that Morse

code or, in general, digital communication

matches perfectly with this model, it is not so

3 According to the early medieval revelation concept, it

is enough for the saint to avoid those noises hindering the

neat reception of divine illumination in order to be flooded

with wisdom (O´Donell, XL, §66; Ortega, 1996, pp. 229-

235)

4 Indeed, it can usually be found that from a semiotics

perspective the simple model is considered as

technologically suited (Bidon-Chanal, 1971). Floridi refers

to this common acceptance of the Shannonesque model

in his article “Semantic Conceptions of Information”

(Floridi, 2005) as one of the two stable connections

between MTC and other information approaches. The

other is the inverse relation principle between probability

and information.

much a success of the model itself, but

probably of those engineers who achieve it –

starting from the objective of developing the

model as design pattern–.

One of the radical simplifications carried by

this model is the assumption that information

or the semantic content travels wrapped by

the clothing of the message, and once it is

received by the consignee, this is self-

sufficient for retrieving the semantic content. It

is

obviously

necessary

a

good

synchronization between codes in both

extremes for a fruitful retrieving. However, the

reality of human communication shows that

what we materially transmit is absolutely non-

sufficient to interpret the actual references

that the emitter wanted to mean or what this

tried to do by communicating. In this sense,

there are other elements with a relevant ability

to signify or to act:

• The circumstance;

• The communications that were held till now;

• The nuances given to emissions by

intonation or gestures (which could also be

considered as other types of emissions or

parallel messages but with a different

logical type, since they may indicate ‘what

to do with respect to enunciations’);

• Shared knowledge;

• Usage of empathy by emitter or receptor.

All of them are master keys for the

revealing of the semantic and pragmatic

meaning. Considering this point, it will be hard

to say that information is just contained in

transmitted messages, instead of this, we may

consider messages as a key to access

information (which may be considered as

more complex process), which is probably the

core of communication (Bustos, 1999, p.

652).5

An examination to the genetic of the simple

model (through the semiotics path or the one

of the MTC) remits us to the Locke’s theory of

5 If these considerations would be taken into account,

when, for example, developing the telephone, the

terminals would be probably located in special places

imitating a shared circumstance. In any case, it would be

settled down that only certain types of communication

were suited to be mediated by this technique.

EMITER

Coder

RECEP-

TOR

Decoder

Original

message

Coded

message

Decoded

message

NOISE

Channel

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language. According to Locke, it can only be

spoken about general words if they are

“the signs of general ideas: and ideas

become general, by separating from

them the circumstances of time and

place, and any other ideas that may

determine them to this or that particular

existence.” (Locke, 1690, B.III, §3.6).

Communication is made possible in Locke

by means of the simple interchange of those

words associated to clear and distinct ideas

(achieving then a mental content traffic) with

no other requirement than similarity between

ideas, in which the reference to world is

attained in virtue of the relation between

words and things (better said, “sort of things”)

(Ibidem, §3.12). This approach can easily be

led up to the formulation of the simple model

but containing a clearer set of assumptions.

The avoidance of the circumstance –as

supposed by Locke- is perhaps one of the first

and deepest consequences of the empire of

simple model, which has been perceived as

essential not only by the linguistic pragmatics

but also by some logic theories (cf. Goddard

and Routley, 1973; van Benthem et al, 2008).

Notice that in telegraph, telephone, radio or

television, the reference to the immediate

circumstance of receptor has disappeared,

carrying a sort of mutilation of communication

whose consequences may go from individuals

(who have become relatively impermeable

from the incessant arrival of messages) to

heritage culture (which having lost its original

development space, it has been invaded by

several symbolic empires while its constitutive

elements are transformed into lifeless

museum pieces), and going through society

and family (whose structures have been

drastically influenced by the appearance –

among others– of television) (Dufour, 2001).

2. Inferential communication model

According to the technical model of digital

communication, probably the closest one to

linguistic communication:

1) the

emitter

(according to some

convention) to communicate X sends Z;

2) the

receptor, after receiving

Z

accompanied by a certain amount of

noise, holds the hypothesis that the

emitter tried to communicate X.

This hypothesis will be also characterized

by a certain error probability, which –

technically– may be reduced as much as it is

desired but it can not be removed.

Nevertheless, if we contrast this model with

the Sperber and Wilson’s inferential model

(1986) we would immediately notice two

decisive aspects: 1st, the reference to context

is essential to grasp the actual relation with

the word expected by emitter; 2nd, the grasp of

the pre-codified message should not be the

only top priority in communication, or even the

ideas of the emitter, but also ‘what was tried

to be done’ with emissions.

Therefore, the inferential model, using a

terminology as close as possible to the

previous digital model, may be formulated as:

1') the

emitter

(according to some

convention) ‘to do X’, being C the context

perceived by emitter, sends Z;

2') the

receptor, after receiving

Z

accompanied by a certain amount of

noise, being C’ the context perceived by

receptor, holds the hypothesis that the

emitter tried ‘to do X’.

Where the inferential model of Sperber and

Wilson has been blended to stress that more

than an objective circumstance for emitter and

receptor, what is actually in action –in order to

select and to interpret emissions–, is the

context perception at both sides. Obviously, if

a person bumps into another dressed with a

police uniform and the first one took him for

the one who might wear the uniform, the type

of things that can be said are very different to

those that would be said in case he was

recognized as an actor: The same thing would

happen with the interpretation of the

emissions of the hypothetical police.

According to this model, the efficiency of

communication would lie in:

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1st the amount of noise is low enough so that

receptor is not mistaken, which will

depend on the difference among the

signals used in the code.

2nd the perceived contexts at both sides are

close enough, and

3rd the code is complex enough in order to

make possible not only the perception of

the semantic content but also what may

be considered of a higher logic level: ‘what

is tried to be done when a signal Z is

sent’.

Among these restrictions only the first one

(that is to say, the one claiming for a non-

noisy channel) was already present in the

simple model. With regard to the second one

and according to the cultural semiotics

analysis, the success of communication

depends on a certain cultural homogeneity.

For cultural semiologists, cultures have

available what Lotman and Uspenskij called a

stereotyping device, which assigns the open

world of realia to the close world of names

(Lotman, 1979; Eco, 1979). This perspective

is also considered by many anthropologists –

such as the structuralists (Keesing, 1974;

Leach, 1993)– and it does not necessary lead

to the famous incommunicability among

cultures (Whorf, 1956), but to the

consideration of cultures as belonging to a

high

complex

structure,

where

interconnections among different cultures are

produced and individuals may participate in

several cultures (which necessarily happens

in different grade and somehow separately, so

that reality is actually interpreted alternatively

by using the different “optics” offered by each

culture). Nevertheless, it results unavoidable –

as Ortega showed– that certain fundamental

elements of the culture to which an individual

belongs take place at any moment, because it

is about the non-questioned assumptions that

we are not conscious of –Ortega’s beliefs–,

and from which we interpret reality.6

This

6

According to Ortega’s comparison, with beliefs

happens something like with the floor sustaining us: to be

actually sustained we may not question it; if we raise our

feet –bringing it into question- we are not sustained

anymore by that specific portion of floor but by other one,

which in that moment is not questioned anymore (Ortega,

1987).

makes that whenever an essential

discrepancy takes place between two

assumed beliefs of speakers, who are trying

to communicate about an issue concerning

such beliefs, their communication is almost

impossible (something similar occurs when

even a mathematical problem is tried to be

solved using two theories with non-compatible

sets of axioms: no kind of agreement can be

reached neither in posing, nor in solution).

To sum up, according to this semiotic

perspective, it cannot be said that two

individuals of different cultures are unable to

communicate with each other, but the amount

of things that they can do while

communicating will be in function of the

degree of cultural interpenetration they

achieve.7 On the other hand, people who

exactly share the same culture were the

optimal participants of a communication

process (whenever the dynamics due to the

confrontation of cultural world-views –

Weltanschauung– is not considered of major

importance in communication process

considered from a wider historical

perspective).8

With regard to the third efficiency factor, the

exclusively

semantic

concept

of

communication has to be transcended –

according to the inferential model–. That

conception, which continues the Lockean

correspondence words-world, may be

superseded to embrace the pragmatic reality

of communication, in which we always

communicate to do something (including, of

course, the case in which this action aims to

modify the beliefs of receiver). For that

purpose, communication should have a code,

articulated according to referential and

conative aspects (Watzlawick, 1981), and at

the same time, containing signals different

enough in order to succeed against noise.

7 Perhaps –analogous to what is done in linguistics–,

we may talk about “symbolic registers”, which may

change within individuals in function of usage.

8

Nevertheless, without needing the homogeneity

condition, the ideal communication requirements may be

modelled for a specific praxeological universe by means

of Habermas’ Discourse Ethics (Habermas, 1991), which

let us also speak about optimal participants in

communication process… Probably, in our present

geopolitical conditions of cultural pluralism, a model as

the one defended by Habermas could be the cornerstone

for a harmonic coexistence among cultures.

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2.1. Critic of ICT with regard inferential

model

Let us go back to the issue about reference

to context: since it is not an optional, but a

structural element of communication, the

usage of media, as telephone or television,

implies some mechanism of circumstance

creation. That is the case of: television

constantly fighting to build a symbolic

universe; the epistolary correspondence

persisting between two persons when they

succeed establishing a symbolic universe of

common references; the fluent telephonic

conversations between speakers who know

each other well enough as to ideally

reconstruct their mutual circumstances (it is

here remarkable how mobile telephone users

employ –as they start conversation– explicit

place references about speaker’s location); or

the Internet utopias in which the building of a

symbolic universe appropriate to this medium

aspires to the category of planet culture

(Etxeverria, 1999).

Nevertheless, the building of these

circumstances, afterwards the medium has

been designed, has several drawbacks: in the

case of telephone it is only possible the

maintenance of fluent communications with a

certain density if the symbolic reference

previously exists. This entails that people can

not establish those spontaneous relations

which are occasionally and frequently built, for

example, on the public square and which

development of interpersonal ties feeds the

social structure. The harm is then of personal

nature (causing, for example, a higher trouble

in establishing personal relations) and also

social (a thinner social structure, in the sense

of having a fewer number and density of ties

between individuals). But the harm may also

be in the cultural realm, since the symbolic

universe is intrinsically interpersonal. Knowing

cultural life is nowadays less developed in

social and face-to-face contexts, this culture

has fewer possibilities to be maintained alive,

or at the level of the current community

problems (Castillo del Pino, 1970; Wolton,

2005).

In case of television, or even the press, the

ability to take part in the creative process of

the symbolic universe is in few hands and with

a very well defined set of economical

interests. They are put upon any other criteria,

causing that the symbolism itself stays at the

mercy of such interest, and not of the

common ones of audience communities, not

even of those of creators’ community. These

groups –involved in an atmosphere of

predatory competency– are more and more

joined to economical interests of

communication oligarchies and indirectly to

the interest of publicity industry (Bourdieu,

1996; Ramonet, 2001; Dufour, 2001; Steven,

2005).

In the case of Internet, it has been

observed for several years an unbalanced

battle among big communication empires

flooding the ‘virtual space’ with commercial

objects and the emblematic, but minority,

association of hackers trying to build a

democratic culture not only being in the hands

of commerce. However, in this building, only a

minority of quasi-specialists is able to

participate. Their contents have not yet the

critical size that would be needed to become

an echo of community (Váden, 2002;

Mattelart, 2001, 2003, 2007). Consequently,

the forging Internet culture does not have the

sufficient connection to social reality and their

problems, making that it disregards the living

torrent which might contribute to it.9

9 In spite of the relative minority of this civic culture

against commercial one, in the last years, some

administrative decisions has been made with regard to

the use of open source programs in large areas of

planetary geography –Brazil, China, Germany, and could

also pointed out, not because of its size, but its

anticipation, the Spanish region Extremadura-. These

measures, although being promissory, are still far away to

raise the involvement of these new technologies up to the

level of the communications that could be called natural –

although in communication issues there is not much being

properly “natural”– in the sense of playing fundamental

rolls in society. (cf. Wolton, 2005). From other points of

view, more enthusiastic about the expectancy of Internet,

this becomes a new form of society, which is “increasingly

structured around the bipolar opposition of the Net and

the self” (Castells, 1996; 2001), and therefore the

question about the reflection of community is just out of

date. To these enthusiastic approaches, we would like to

pose if this new sense of community will be able to give

rise to a culture competent enough to fight against the

actual problems of their people. Otherwise the normal

balance between problems and solutions will be broken

and the new culture will not be able to last (cf. Homer-

Dixon, 2000).

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3. Other models

A critical exploration to the alternative

communication models with respect to the

simple one could not leave apart the Austin’s

pragmatic theory (systemized by Strawson

and Searle) about speech acts (Bystos, 1999;

Searle, 1969; Strawson, 1983), but because

of the extension we would need, we will not

tackle it. Such theory could easily be

translated into a theory of ‘communicative

acts’ –using, of course, only those elements

which are susceptible to be generalized–.

Here, the emissive and receiving phenomena

may be considered into a complete executive

dynamic mediated by what could be called

‘communicative force’ –generalizing the

Austinian concept of illocutionary force–. In

virtue of this model and the refined analysis

that Austin devotes to infelicities (failures of

‘what is done’ in a communicative act), a

fruitful critical instrument could be developed

to assess communication system quality.

Other pragmatic theory that could provide a

valuable point of view on communication is

the Grice’s intentional theory of meaning,

which is sustained upon the interesting

principle of communicative cooperation and

implicatures (Grice, 1989). These –carefully

generalized– may illuminate fundamental

parts of the communication process being

non-visible for the simple model. Indeed, the

issue of intentionality in a general sense

(wider than the one used by Grice, for

example, the one proposed by Searle, 1983)

may lead to a radical consideration of the

information notion. This one has been masked

since Shannon –in hands of the MTC– behind

a notion better suited for data than for

information (Floridi, 2005a, 2005b).

In order to emphasize the recursiveness of

communication, the former inferential model

may be modified to propose a recursive one

using a unique rule:

1'') Perceiving Zn-1 in a context C’, to do Xn is

decided. In order to reach it and according

with a convention CV’, Zn (communicative

act) is done.

Where convention CV’ (as the participant

understands it) should be considered as an

open and dynamic set of rules.

If trying to humanize the model even more,

we brought it into the executive dynamic of a

person’s life, instead of context we might

speak about vital situations or just life

(including its particular environment and, of

course, all their interpersonal relations). In this

case, the sequence of decisions {..., Xn-2, Xn-1,

Xn, ...} which are taken towards a sequence of

objectives {..., On-2, On-1, On, ...}, together with

the actions that are done {..., Zn-2, Zn-1, Zn, ...}

may be considered as an schema of life.

No doubt, all the considerations here

remarked would require a more detailed

discussion, but let us leave here what has

been said as brushstrokes of what could be

said and as a simple probe that the painting of

the communicative reality may be filled with

many more colors and lights than those shed

by the simple model. If somehow these

models honor the truth, then the honest

technician should worry for those questions

posed at the beginning, since the assumed

transparent system would not be possible.

Conclusions

Although only the inferential model has

been essayed in some extend, this has shown

up some important curses derived from the

usage of the simple (or technical) model,

which forgets some essential elements of

communication. As illustrated, when these

elements are not provided, those human

communications depending on information

technologies may impoverish. Trying to

integrate these aspects and those that could

be given by the mentioned models into the

technological model should be –in our

opinion– a major issue.

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About the Authors

José María Díaz Nafría

Obtained M.Sc. in telecommunication engineering from the Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao, Spain, in 1996. He received

his PhD in telecommunication engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid with a dissertation on "Contributions

to the electromagnetic inverse problem". He was also awarded with a M.A. in Philosophy by the Universidad Nacional de

Educación a Distancia (UNED). He was research fellow at the Vienna University of Technology and at the Technical

University of Madrid. He also served as assistant professor at the University Alfonso X el Sabio in Madrid, where he is now

a university lecturer. He has been visiting lecturer at the University of Furtwangen, University of Applied Sciences of

St.Pölten and University of Saltzburg. Co-director of the “First International Meeting of Experts in Information Theories”

currently coordinates an interdisciplinary research group meted around the BITrum project (Elucidation of the information

concept).

Basil Al Hadithi

He got the title of B. Sc. in control and system engineering in 1983 and the M. Sc. in control and instrumentation

engineering in 1988, both at the University of Technology of Bagdad (Iraq). He received the PhD in process control and

artificial intelligence in 2002 from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). He works as an assistant professor since

1999 at the University Alfonso X el Sabio in Madrid (Spain). His interest is mainly focused in adaptive control, fuzzy control

and slide mode control. In the field of control system theory and fuzzy logic, he takes a seat in the scientific committee of the

BITrum project, where he also commits himself as part of the editorial board.