< KarstenWade | OpenContent
Intrinsic Meaning in the Context of Open Content
Intrinisic Meaning and Code
Intrinisic meaning is the underlying meaning within an overall context.
For software code, the intrinsic meaning is in what happens when the code is compiled. Thus, the intrinsic meaning can always be ultimately understood for a piece of code by what it does, but only if it is open.
Open code (FLOSS) shows the underlying methods that achieve the programmatic effects. With these two pieces of the information, the beginning and the end, the intrinsic meaning can be fully understood. From there it is possible to expand upon it, thwart it, learn from it, and so forth.
Applications that come from closed code can never be fully understood. You only get to see one side of the equation, and can never get at the intrinsic meaning.
Intrinsic Meaning in Content
Content is a the superset of a number of formats that include code, text, video, audio, and images. A clay tablet of Mesopotamian cuneiform is content.
Code is possibly the first open content that the intrinsic meaning can be fully understood by possessing the two sides of the equation. Other content forms suffer from obfuscations that make the intrinsic meaning ... elusive.
In every written and spoken language there are ways that a change of a letter, the pronunciation of a sound, the addition or subtraction of a punctuation mark, alters the meaning. Often it is used as a pun, so is intentional. Sometimes it is a mistake, even by a native speaker/writer, a mistake that can cause a small misunderstanding ... or a great one.
Combine those two concepts together and you have very potential danger:
(intentional misuse as a means to an end) + (small pen marks do mighty things) ------------------------------------------- (many good and bad things that have happened since the dawn of humans)