I was reading Yaneer Bar-Yam's construction of systems theory from Shannon's information theory and couldn't help notice that I disagree that disorder is harder to describe. Yes, it's useful to have a theory that helps you design efficient use of bandwidth, but maybe that doesn't have to do with the real difference between order and disorder.
A random distribution of data looks to me like a very complicated question with a very simple answer, and a patterned distribution a somewhat simpler question with an impossible answer (at least any way we've agreed to describe natural systems so far). The material evidence is that science has made great progress with the former, the phenomena of the world based on random processes, in that they can be reliably described. Could it be that there's a flaw in Shannon, or was he maybe talking about data (questions) rather than information (answers)? Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 680 Ft. Washington Ave NY NY 10040 tel: 212-795-4844 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] explorations: www.synapse9.com ============================================================ 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
