Re: [Fis] general theory of order and disorder

Folks,

   The wide topics covering probability, information, entropy, temperature,
order, disorder, symmetry and asymmetry reminded me of at least one thing.
Suppose I am a bacterium. Do I care all of them? When it is moving around, a
bacterium can measure and superbly take advantage of the ambient temperature
without acknowledging our cherished kinetic theory of temperature. That is
what we call thermotaxis. Although we as the external observers can analyze
how the bacterium moves around in terms of the analytical tools we would
like to have, the tools themselves are of imposed theoretical nature. The
tools by definition remain indifferent to whatever situations to which they
are applied. Measurement of the tools does neither modify nor change the
their qualification. Once we are confident of the availability of
measurement-immune tools such as probability distribution or entropy or
whatever else for the purposes, we may be able to say something definite
about the measurement to be done before actually doing it. This practice is
just wonderful within the accepted framework. On the other hand, if we admit
that nothing can remain immune to the act of measurement, it always comes up
with changes in the measuring body. A bacterium is constantly adjusting its
whole body as measuring the ambient temperature or the gradient of chemical
attractants such as glucose or repellents.

   In short, asking for measurement-immune analytical tools is equivalent to
taking for granted that every observational statement is accomplished in
third-person description in the present tense. But, this is not for a
bacterium per se. Bacteria live with the vicissitudes of the tools available
in whatever context. The real question is how could we approach what our
fellow bacteria have been doing for long, linguistically. One candidate,
though not impressive in its outlook, might be to have recourse to
practicing second-person description in the present progressive tense, since
every statement attempted there is vulnerable to the surprises or the
unexpected coming from over the current finite descriptive horizon.

   Cheers,
   Koichiro

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Received on Sun May 2 14:13:58 2004