3 ms·
The alleged origins of the naming of entropy: When Shannon first derived his famous formula for information, he asked von Neumann what he should call it and vo
by 1cvmask 5y ago
The alleged origins of the naming of entropy:
When Shannon first derived his famous formula for information, he asked von Neumann what he should call it and von Neumann replied “You should call it entropy for two reasons: first because that is what the formula is in statistical mechanises but second and more important, as nobody knows what entropy is, whenever you use the term you will always be at an advantage!
From:
http://www.spatialcomplexity.info/what-von-neumann-said-to-shannon/ http://www.spatialcomplexity.info/what-von-neumann-said-to-s...
- 2snakes 5y agoYeah, I would characterize it as a mathematical theory of -symbols- and that information has different definitions. However, the argument can be made that symbolic representation is a principle of reality.
- ajarmst 5y agoI don’t think you can meaningly disentangle “information” and its representation without doing violence to the underlying theory. Nor is a discussion of “symbols” coherent without a reference to the information encoded. Grounding the idea of information in the logical and physical limitations of representation is part of the genius of the theory, not an unfortunate epiphenomenon.