On Friday, February 28, 2014 9:18:29 PM UTC-5, Russell Standish wrote: > > On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 10:51:00AM -0500, spudb...@aol.com > <javascript:>wrote: > > > > Ok, Thanks. We're back to the Observer again, where all things are > decided at the quantum. From here on the questions tumble forth as a > cascade, on whether the Observer is conscious, who is the Observer, what is > the Observer? > > > > Interesting questions, to be sure, but all quite irrelevant to > information theory. All an observer needs to do for information theory > is detect a difference (that makes a difference). >
Something needs to be able to assign a significance to that detection also, and to have the power to manipulate and combine significance, difference, detection, and re-manipulation. In short, something needs to sense and to make sense of sense. Craig > Cheers > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Russell Standish <li...@hpcoders.com.au <javascript:>> > > To: everything-list <everyth...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>> > > Sent: Thu, Feb 27, 2014 5:15 pm > > Subject: Re: Is information physical? > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 05:01:51PM -0500, spudb...@aol.com > > <javascript:>wrote: > > > Not to be a dick, but is not "information" or "data" perforations, and > pulses, > > in mater and energy? This is how we recognize information from > background noise, > > correct? Is there a third state of reality that is not matter or energy? > > > > > > > Only when interpreted by an observer. An electrical circuit has only > > voltages and currents, not bits. To an observer, a voltage on a data > > line might be interpreted as 1 if it is greater than 3V, and zero if > > it is less than 1V. In between those two thresholds, the voltage might > > be determinate, but the information is not. > > > > The "third state", as you call it, is a semantically different picture > > where things are described in terms of whether some physical state is > > the same as, or different from, some other physical state, according to > > the interpretation of an observer. From that, comes bits, and all the > > other information-based quantities. > > > > -- > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > > Principal, High Performance Coders > > Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpc...@hpcoders.com.au<javascript:> > > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > > "Everything List" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email > > to everything-li...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > > To post to this group, send email to > > everyth...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>. > > > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Everything List" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to everything-li...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > > To post to this group, send email to > > everyth...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>. > > > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpc...@hpcoders.com.au<javascript:> > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
