Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

What is Shannon
Information?

Although the use of the word ‘information’, with different meanings, can be traced back to antique and medieval texts , it is only in the 20th century that the term begins to acquire the present-day sense.
http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/10911/1/What_is_Shannon_Information.pdf

  Post 123.  April 11, 2022

  What is Information?

  Material or metaphysical or both?

 Claude Shannon labeled the basic element of computer data as "Information". That word had long been associated with various aspects of ideas in the human mind : communication, knowledge, reference, meaning, truth, etc. Yet, his quantified definition of the term focused, not on any particular semantic content, but merely the power to represent any meaningful data, from nouns to numbers. It was the comparison of incomplete or uncertain information with the physical concept of Entropy¹, that opened the door to our understanding of the universal role of Information in both the physical (matter) & metaphysical (mind) realms of reality. Some technical examples of those disparate functions are : Fisher Information (probability of X) ; Algorithmic Information (strings of com-mands & data in a program) ; von Neumann Entropy (quantum decay) ; and so forth. However, as expressed in a paper entitled What is Shannon Information?, “the very interpretation of the concept of information is far from unanimous.“

So, for the purposes of my philosophical worldview, I have constructed my own definitions, that reflect the ubiquity of Information in all aspects of reality, especially its mental & meaningful functions.  Also, its role in Energy & Causation is important at both the Quantum & Cosmic levels of the world. For example, the Observer Effect of quantum theory implies that when a mind extracts information (knowledge) from a quantum system in Superposition (multiple states simul-taneously) the waveform of that particle is forced to collapse into a single measurable state. In other words, the particle suddenly changes from Mathematical to Material. That spooky result reminded some of magical mind-over-matter² powers. So, other, less uncanny, interpretations were sought.

Since Shannon was a communications engineer, he emphasized the uncertainty & degradation of the original signal with the label “Entropy”. But, the opposite of destructive Entropy is causal & potentially-constructive Energy. Fortun-ately, energy is inherent in space-time³, so it is never created or destroyed, but merely changes form. And that innovative ability to transform has allowed Evolution to create living organisms from in-animate matter, by temporarily holding-off the inevitable entropy (death) of the system. In my thesis, I refer to that enforming (creative) & life-giving anti-entropy form of general Energy, as “Enformy”. It's a natural feature of the universe, but scientists inadvertently minimized its importance, by labeling it as a negative (Negentropy), instead of positive force in the world. Therefore, as a philosophical concept, I focus on the positive effects of Causal Energy, which has resulted in a gradual progression from the simple formless potential of the Big Bang Singularity⁴ to the complex (enformed) world, that Darwin described as “endless forms most beautiful”.

                Blog Post 123 continued . . . .

1. Entropy :
A> a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for con-version into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system.

B> lack of order or predict-ability; gradual decline into disorder.

2. Mind over Matter :
The “measurement problem” in quantum physics asks in what sense the measuring mind of the observer could physically affect a system in superposition, causing it to collapse from multiple indefinite states to a single defined state.
“ The inability to observe such a collapse directly has given rise to different interpretations of quantum mechanics”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measurement_problem

3. Time is Entropy :
The arrow of time is defined by the conversion of Energy into Entropy – the power is running down. But at the same time, space itself is expanding, thereby reducing its energy density.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_as_an_arrow_of_time

4. Singularity :
The point at which a mathematical function takes an infinite value, especially in space-time when matter is infinitely dense, as at the center of a black hole.
In other words, it is where space-time disappears into Infinity. Or, in the Big Bang theory, it is the point where the BB suddenly appears as-if from nowhere. Since something from nothing is non-sense, except in Magic, scientists have been searching for something to replace the unknowns of unreal Infinity.

NON-RANDOM Notes :

Information is made of (consists of) non-random patterns of relationships in material and mental forms. Since randomness (disorganization) is assumed to be essential to evolutionary theory, non-random patterns can be interpreted as implying intentional ordering. The source of that self-organizing tendency can only be attributed to Natural Selection. In a computer program, such logical choices are provided by the Programmer in the form of an Operating System. In evolution, we call them Laws of Nature.

Information is meaning, matter, and energy

ENFORMATIONISM

First, what is information? It’s basically the ability to distinguish between alternatives.

https://bigthink.com/13-8/quantum-steampunk/