“Occasionally one speaks… of signals or signal chains. It should be noted that the word signal means the transmission of signs and hence concerns the very principle of causal order…”

— Hans Reichenbach

The Philosophy of Space and Time (1928, tr. 1957)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Occasionally one speaks… of signals or signal chains. It should be noted that the word signal means the transmission of…" by Hans Reichenbach?

Hans Reichenbach photo

Hans Reichenbach 41

American philosopher 1891–1953

Related quotes

“Occasionally one speaks… of signals or signal chains.”

Hans Reichenbach (1891–1953) American philosopher

It should be noted that the word signal means the transmission of signs and hence concerns the very principle of causal order...
The Philosophy of Space and Time (1928, tr. 1957)

“Transmission through space (typically signaling) is the same as transmission through time”

Richard Hamming (1915–1998) American mathematician and information theorist

storage
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)

“Physically, we transmit signals or signs -- audible, visual, tactual. But the mere transmission and reception of a physical signal does not constitute communication. A sign, if it is perceived by the recipient, has the potential for selecting responses in him. Physically, when we communicate, we make noises with our mouths, or gesticulate, or exhibit some token or icon, and these physical signals set up a response behavior.”

Colin Cherry (1914–1979) British scientist

Source: On Human Communication (1957), What Is It That We Communicate?, p. 10

“Everything had purpose, signal, meaning.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Let the Great World Spin (2009), Let the Great World Spin Forever Down

“The theory of communication is partly concerned with the measurement of information content of signals, as their essential property in the establishment of communication links. But the information content of signals is not to be regarded as a commodity; it is more a property or potential of the signals, and as a concept it is closely related to the idea of selection, or discrimination. This mathematical theory first arose in telegraphy and telephony, being developed for the purpose of measuring the information content of telecommunication signals. It concerned only the signals themselves as transmitted along wires, or broadcast through the aether, and is quite abstracted from all questions of "meaning." Nor does it concern the importance, the value, or truth to any particular person. As a theory, it lies at the syntactic level of sign theory and is abstracted from the semantic and pragmatic levels. We shall argue … that, though the theory does not directly involve biological elements, it is nevertheless quite basic to the study of human communication -- basic but insufficient.”

Colin Cherry (1914–1979) British scientist

Source: On Human Communication (1957), What Is It That We Communicate?, p. 10

“And if our future
Lies on the final line
Are we brave enough
To see the signals and the signs?”

Harry Chapin (1942–1981) American musician

I Wonder What Would Happen to this World
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

“Can't stop the signal”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

“The chairs and tables around us which broadcast to us incessantly those signals which affect our sight and touch cannot in their nature be like unto the signals or to the sensations which the signals awake at the end of their journey.”

Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) British astrophysicist

III, p.36
Science and the Unseen World (1929)

“…absolute time would exist in a causal structure for which the concept indeterminate as to time order lends to a unique simultaneity, i. e., for which there is no finite interval of time between the departure and return of a first-signal…”

Hans Reichenbach (1891–1953) American philosopher

The Philosophy of Space and Time (1928, tr. 1957)

“Inhumanity, n. One of the signal and characteristic qualities of humanity.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Related topics