How information dies?

Dear all ,

As mentioned several times lately, we may advance by considering the
destruction of information (in addition to its presence).
Several of us have mentioned now and in the past that information is one
possibility out of many, so what happens to the rest?

The time is ripe, as mentioned by Ted, Pedro and Andrei, to try to provide
quantitative principles that define the value or dissapearance of info or
give an idea of the playing field, the possibilites available.

I have suggested three such rules in the paper "Information processing in a
partitional framework" which I think are quite universal: parsimony (that
only differences count), economy, (that excludes redundancy) and symmetry
(that each set of info has commutative relations).

Although simple, this approach has been developed over four years in close
consideration of Karl Javorsky's and Pedro's work. We get several phenomena
that I am very happy and surprised to see are all mentioned in Ted's last
message: i.e. new layers and complexity thresholds and predictable dynamics
(see the two figures in the paper). We seem to be heading in the same
direction.

Some may cringe from hearing about yet another model but I find that the
main topics of discussion over the weekend hit our nail on the head.
Although there are plenty of models and vocabulary to describe communication
there are less for the "meat" of information. By using simple yet universal
concepts and one or two symbols we provide a finite list of possibilities
and quantative rules for chopping down and/or grouping elementary levels.

thanks and all the best,

Morris

P.S. I understand that there is more movement on the list now but I second
(or third) Pedro's plea
for two messages per week per person to advance more coherent and integrated
discussions. This may also
make the chairperson's task easier.
Received on Mon May 27 11:28:16 2002