Re: Quote of the week
Posted by
Tom Carter on
Jun 06, 2011; 4:38am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Quote-of-the-week-tp6442957p6443883.html
Hmmm . . .
I would say this just slightly differently -- the amount of information an observer gains from observing an event is equal to the decrease in uncertainty the observer has from observing the event (e.g., if I am almost certain an event will occur, I gain almost no information from observing the event; on the other hand, if I observe an event I was very unsure would happen, I gain a lot of information). Decrease in uncertainty and gain in information are just two ways of talking about the same quantity.
I'll also make the observation that, for me, information is not a property of an event, but rather of a combined system of event and observer. In particular, two different observers can gain different amounts of information from observing the same event (think about two students attending my lecture on information theory -- if one of them has been through my lecture several times before, they know what to expect, and hence have comparatively little uncertainty about what they will hear, and hence gain little information when they hear it . . .). This is part of why it is valuable to think of the quantity as being uncertainty decrease, rather than information gain -- it keeps some more emphasis on the observer, whose uncertainty is being decreased . . .
Thanks . . .
tom
On Jun 5, 2011, at 8:06 PM, Grant Holland wrote:
Interesting note on "information" and "uncertainty"...
Information is Uncertainty. The two words are synonyms.
Shannon called it "uncertainty", contemporary Information theory
calls it "information".
It is often thought that the more information there is, the less
uncertainty. The opposite is the case.
In Information Theory (aka the mathematical theory of
communications) , the degree of information I(E) - or uncertainty
U(E) - of an event is measurable as an inverse function of its
probability, as follows:
U(E) = I(E) = log( 1/Pr(E) ) = log(1) - log( Pr(E) ) = -log( Pr(E)
).
Considering I(E) as a random variable, Shannon's entropy is, in
fact, the first moment (or expectation) of I(E). Shannon entropy =
exp( I(E) ).
Grant
On 6/5/2011 2:20 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
"Philosophy is to physics as pornography is to sex.
It's cheaper, it's easier and some people seem to prefer it."
Modern Physics is contained in Realism which is contained in
Metaphysics which I contained in all of Philosophy.
I'd be tempted to counter:
"Physics is to Philosophy as the Missionary
Position is to the Kama Sutra"
Physics also appeals to Phenomenology and Logic (the branch of
Philosophy were Mathematics is rooted) and what we can know
scientifically is constrained by Epistemology (the nature of
knowledge) and phenomenology (the nature of conscious experience).
It might be fair to say that many (including many of us here) who
hold Physics up in some exalted position simply dismiss or choose
to ignore all the messy questions considered by *the rest of*
philosophy. Even if we think we have clear/simple answers to the
questions, I do not accept that the questions are not worthy of
the asking.
The underlying point of the referenced podcast is, in fact, that
Physics, or Science in general might be rather myopic and limited
by it's own viewpoint by definition.
"The more we know, the less we understand."
Philosophy is about understanding, physics is about knowledge
first and understanding only insomuch as it is a part of natural
philosophy.
Or at least this is how my understanding is structured around
these matters.
- Steve
On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 1:15 PM, Robert
Holmes
<[hidden email]>
wrote:
>From the BBC's science podcast "The Infinite Monkey Cage":
"Philosophy is to physics as
pornography is to sex. It's cheaper, it's easier and some
people seem to prefer it."
Not to be pedantic, but I suspect that s/he has conflated
"philosophy" with "new age", as much of science owes itself to
philosophy.
marcos
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org