[Fis] miscellanea

hi, FIS Folks

I have been away a couple of weeks, and found a discussion arena full of
exciting topics. Actually, trying to cope with all those messages has left
me in a state close to nervous collapse... but within a positive sensation
that a broad consensus on information and entropy within the physical
sciences seems reachable. Of course, not in a short term, as even in this
restricted realm of physics (and theoretical science), there are quite
different traditions of thought that do not communicate straightly (the
sciences are 'rational' constructs but also robust 'historical' bodies!).
Not to mention what happens in the multifarious information landscapes
around living cells, nervous systems, ecosystems, human societies...
Anyhow, in the personal effort of ironing out my informational approach to
the inanimate let me pen a few unconnected comments and questions:

1. The relationship between temperature and entropy. No one has talked
about temperature yet --except Loet indirectly, when he introduces
'dimensions' in thermodynamic entropy. For temperature is also energy,
joules (or calories), like heat; and the Boltzmann's constant only takes
care of the disparaging energy units, as the Kelvin degree is a mere
minuscule fraction of the joule: some 10 exp 23. Temperature is but the
average energy per degree of freedom (and the change of entropy becomes an
abstract metric on the dispersion of the energy carriers). I follow Frank
Lambert in this encapsulation (www.entropysite.com). Let me add that I find
extremely interesting the further views of Loet on generalized entropies,
full of potential applications in biological and neuronal matters, eg, the
Weber-Fechner law that presides our 'entropic' perception of sensory
variables around, and I hope that we will be able to approach this topic in
future sessions... I would appreciate if Michel or other parties could get
ahead and relate properly temperature and (symmetry based?) interpretations
of entropy. By the way, I much join the view espoused by him and Bob on
thermodynamic entropy and probability grounds.

2. In von Bayer (1998, "Warm Disperses...") there is a discussion on the
new approach to thermodynamic entropy developed by Zurek. Seemingly he puts
together the information/entropy approach discussed here by Shu-Kun and the
token aspect discussed by Igor. There seems to be a new term added to
conventional entropy, thorughout the Kolmogorov randomness content of the
algorithmic information gathered by the observed. I would much welcome
comments by Michael on that regard.

3. Finally, I have no time left to disgress now about the motor approach to
sensory perception, tentatively extended to 'meaning'. During these two
weeks I have been pondering, and found quite a lot of connections to
explore: to the vertebrate organization of the action-perception-action
cycle, to emotions, to the origins of oral language, to postural
communication and sign languages, to the 'manual' contamination in our
inner intellectual language ('comprehend', 'grasp', 'get', 'hold',
'manipulate' ...), to the very general notion of agency, and even to
aspects of the scientific 'observer' --eg., measurement-- and of
mathematics as a prosthetic action/perception system, and also about the
plausible complementarity of this view with context (as Aleks suggested).
Apologies for this diversion.

all the best

Pedro

PS. Everybody should remember the FIS discipline of two postings per week.
There have been several transgressors. Only Michel, as our chair, has the
right to post up to 4 messages per week.

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Received on Wed Apr 21 14:07:23 2004