Information of the Population One

Dear Jerry and all:

   Jerry, your

>perspective of a biochemist

is remarkably physical and mathematical.

>Information theory starts from the notion of a probability space and a
>probability distribution. These terms are purely matheamtical in nature
>and no material or dynamic constraints exist on them.

   Perhaps, you are talking here about a theoretical formalism in
a given structure-oriented language like in Euclidean geometry. It is
quite right as far as the theoretical framework is concerned. My
problem is on those we would face when we try to connect such a
theoretical edifice to empirical phenomena. This is certainly
related to the matter of observations or measurements as you said:

>This first question [Information of the Population One] introduces
>the general problem of the necessary
>condition for congruency between observations, semantics, and symbols.

   Agreed.
   
>Clearly, our planet earth is composed from local dynamic processes which
>are information-rich. By an appropriate choice of semantics and
>symbols, one can contradict the observations (at a different reference
>scale!) :-) :-)

   Aren't these contradctions one of the reasons for why the issue of
information persistently intrigues and betrays us?

   Regards,
   Koichiro

     Koichiro Matsuno
 
Received on Tue Jan 13 04:25:42 1998