The new theory of reference that has replaced descriptivism is sometimes referred to as the "causal theory of reference". This theory suggests an initial interpretation of the notion of infogenerative relations. According to this interpretation, infogenerative relations, those that fix the reference of mental records, are the causal relations by virtue of which an object affects the subject's epistemic state and enables the subject to accumulate information about the object.
But there's another, non-causal interpretation of the notion of infogenerative relations. When I think It's hot here, the place designated by here is the place where I am at the moment I think that. The type of relation that fixes the reference, in this case as in the case of I, is not the causal relation between the subject and the entity to which the subject refers, i.e. the relation that is established when the object is at the origin of a flow of information that feeds the subject's mental file. Indeed, I can refer to the place where I am by saying or thinking here even in the absence of any informational flow, for example if I've been transported unconscious to a place I don't know, and I've been blindfolded and my ears plugged so that I have no way of acquiring perceptual information about the place where I am. These cases of informational deprivation provide a first argument for saying that what fixes the reference is not the flow of information (the causal relation) but the indexical relation (being in a certain place, being a certain individual, etc.) which, under normal conditions, enables the establishment of the informational flow.
