- [a thread from Conor on Luhmann](https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1129788856851619840) - http://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes #Roam #exobrain - It is impossible to think without writing; at least it is impossible in any sophisticated or networked (**anschlußfähig**) fashion. - One of the most basic presuppositions of communication is that the partners can mutually surprise each other. Only in this way can information be produced in the respective other. - Information is an intra-systematic event. It results when one compares one message or entry with regard to other possibilities. Information, accordingly, originates only in systems which possess a comparative schema—even if this amounts only to: “this or something else.” - For communication, we do not have to presuppose that both parties use the same comparative schema. The effect of surprise even increases when this is not the case and when we believe that a message means something (or is useful) against the background of other possibilities. - Put differently, the variety in communicating systems increases when it may happen that the two partners successfully communicate in the face of different comparative goals. - The true purpose of note-taking is transporting states of mind (not just information) through time. - The surprise of that Luhmann speaks of is thus the surprise of communicating with a past version of yourself that was in a different state of mind.