To Graham, Magnus, and those speaking about information theory:
>> GRAHAM: Is the information contained in DNA an *intellectual* value pattern?
> Magnus Berg: [...] I wouldn't say that information really exists anywhere but in the intellectual level. If we see > information, it
*is* intellectual patterns. The > information is on the other hand supported by patterns of lower levels, from > this comes the
illusion that information would actually exist elsewhere. [...] I think it would be more correct to say that it is biological value.
However, if we assign meaning to the patterns in a DNA string, we would add information to them, hence intellectual patterns. The
physical appearance of a thing does not change when we add intellectual patterns like this. But it does enable us to *read* the
information of the DNA. This is what the DNA researchers are doing trying to catalogue the human chromosomes.
The idea that information has to do with "meaning" is extraneous to information theory.
"In information theory, the term information is used in a special sense; it is a measure of the freedom of choice with which a message
is selected from the set of all possible messages. Information is thus distinct from meaning, since it is entirely possible for a
string of nonsense words and a meaningful sentence to be equivalent with respect to information content."
(http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/06364.html)
Thus, when assigning meaning to the patterns in a DNA string we do *not* add information to them. We are doing something different.
For much the same reasons, I think that assuming all information to be at the intellectual level is also meaningless. There is a strict
relation between information and entropy (i.e., Shannon's information happens to be the same thing as Boltzmann's entropy). Is entropy
intellectual?
<in case you answer yes>
You might be saying that entropy and information are *both* intellectual, in the sense that they are concepts that the intellect
applies to an otherwise informationless universe. This may be appealing because, amongst other reasons, it is possible to define
entropy/information with respect to predictability (or surprise). A high-entropy system is one where there is little order, hence few
chances of predicting what a part of it is like if you know some other part. (Very roughly: the last course on IT I attended to dates
back to a decade ago). Prediction and surprise are of course related to the observer, i.e. (?) the observing intellect. This might be
worth discussing, although to me it looks exactly like saying that seagulls are intellectual patterns of value because the seagull is a
concept the intellect applies to certain configuration of molecules flying through the air (and of course molecules and the air itself
would be intellectual patterns via the same reasoning).
Lastly, and partly because of the above, I have no idea why "quantum information" would be a contradiction in the MOQ.
-- Andrea Sosio P&T-TPD-SP Tel. (8)9006 mailto: Andrea.Sosio@italtel.itMOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/ MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
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