updated 1d ago
Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies
The sound created by a guitar disappears as the sound waves penetrate the air. The ripples created by a pebble thrown into a pond disappear as the pond goes back to its resting state. This loss of information was explained by the physics discovered in the nineteenth century, but the growth of information that continues to take place in well-defined
... See morefrom Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by César A. Hidalgo
Tim Tensen added 6mo ago
The irreversibility of time is the mechanism that brings order out of chaos. —ILYA PRIGOGINE
from Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by César A. Hidalgo
Tim Tensen added 6mo ago
The universes predicted by Boltzmann and Maxwell, and later refined by the thermodynamics of Helmholtz, Gibbs, and Einstein, were universes that evolved into homogeneous soups—soups in which there was no information and energy was no longer free (that is, there was no energy available to perform work).3
from Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by César A. Hidalgo
Tim Tensen added 6mo ago
According to Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, information is a measure of the minimum volume of communication required to uniquely specify a message.
from Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by César A. Hidalgo
Tim Tensen added 6mo ago
So time is irreversible in a statistical system because the chaotic nature of systems of many particles implies that an infinite amount of information would be needed to reverse the evolution of the system. This also means that statistical systems cannot go backward because there are an infinite number of paths that are compatible with any present.
from Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by César A. Hidalgo
Tim Tensen added 6mo ago
Technically, Shannon is correct to say that we do need more bits to communicate the contents of a hard drive containing random data than of one containing pictures and documents.
from Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by César A. Hidalgo
Tim Tensen added 6mo ago
the fact that we need more bits to communicate a state in which everyone has randomly chosen a seat in the stadium or in which the bits in a hard drive have been randomly flipped does not mean that these are states that embody more order or information.
from Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by César A. Hidalgo
Tim Tensen added 6mo ago
“Entropy refers to an average of (physical) states, information to a particular (physical) state.”9
from Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by César A. Hidalgo
Tim Tensen added 6mo ago
In a physical system, information is the opposite of entropy, as it involves uncommon and highly correlated configurations that are difficult to arrive at.
from Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by César A. Hidalgo
Tim Tensen added 6mo ago