Re: [Fis] Information and communication

From: Koichiro Matsuno <[email protected]>
Date: Tue 25 May 2004 - 05:14:10 CEST

Folks,

   Although it may be extremely difficult to say something decent about the
relationship between entropy and information as of now, let me guess what
our fellow Maxwell's demon lurking in the fis list may say as perusing our
discussion. If the M demon takes its bodily makeup totally classical from A
to Z as a legitimate inhabitant of the classical world at temperature T, the
quantitative expression of thermodynamic entropy kTln2 (k: Boltzmann's
constant) for a basic binary distinction as championed by Szilard, Brilloin
and their company could be vindicated. However, if the M demon happens to be
a very strange folk contacting two worlds, very hot and very cold, at the
same time, the relationship between the entropy and the act of binary
distinction or information in general could not be that simple. The entropy
for the basic binary distinction radically differs depending upon the
temperature of the interface which the M demon decides to measure.

   What's more, contacting two worlds at different temperatures could not be
so strange from the viewpoint of an human engineer. That is a heat engine
operating between different temperatures. Then, a question arises as to who
in the world could have been capable of fabricating such an exquisite heat
engine without the help of our fellow engineers. At this point enters
quantum mechanics.

   Physicists have told us that if temperature is lowered enough, a
macroscopic condensation of quantum coherence (e.g., superconductivity and
ferromagnetism) can readily be formed. That's fine. One likely outcome from
this consensus of the physicist community is that if a quantum coherence is
established by whatever means, the effective temperature can be very low.
The M demon can take advantage of quantum coherence as a means of living in
the two worlds, hot and cold, simultaneously. This must be a feat
unconceivable in the classical world alone. Forming a quantum coherence
effectively at a low temperature and letting the once cohered decohere
effectively at a high temperature is the way of living on the part of the
shrewd Maxwell demon. This should be what enzymes in biology have been doing
for long. Strange?

   All the best,
   Koichiro
Received on Tue May 25 05:23:15 2004

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