Entropy and Information in Science and Philosophy PDF Download

Author: Libor Kubát
Publisher: Elsevier Science & Technology
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Author: David Ellerman
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030865525
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
This monograph offers a new foundation for information theory that is based on the notion of information-as-distinctions, being directly measured by logical entropy, and on the re-quantification as Shannon entropy, which is the fundamental concept for the theory of coding and communications. Information is based on distinctions, differences, distinguishability, and diversity. Information sets are defined that express the distinctions made by a partition, e.g., the inverse-image of a random variable so they represent the pre-probability notion of information. Then logical entropy is a probability measure on the information sets, the probability that on two independent trials, a distinction or “dit” of the partition will be obtained. The formula for logical entropy is a new derivation of an old formula that goes back to the early twentieth century and has been re-derived many times in different contexts. As a probability measure, all the compound notions of joint, conditional, and mutual logical entropy are immediate. The Shannon entropy (which is not defined as a measure in the sense of measure theory) and its compound notions are then derived from a non-linear dit-to-bit transform that re-quantifies the distinctions of a random variable in terms of bits—so the Shannon entropy is the average number of binary distinctions or bits necessary to make all the distinctions of the random variable. And, using a linearization method, all the set concepts in this logical information theory naturally extend to vector spaces in general—and to Hilbert spaces in particular—for quantum logical information theory which provides the natural measure of the distinctions made in quantum measurement. Relatively short but dense in content, this work can be a reference to researchers and graduate students doing investigations in information theory, maximum entropy methods in physics, engineering, and statistics, and to all those with a special interest in a new approach to quantum information theory.

Author: Sean Carroll
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593186583
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Most appealing... technical accuracy and lightness of tone... Impeccable.”—Wall Street Journal “A porthole into another world.”—Scientific American “Brings science dissemination to a new level.”—Science The most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts pulls back the veil of mystery that has too long cloaked the most valuable building blocks of modern science. Sean Carroll, with his genius for making complex notions entertaining, presents in his uniquely lucid voice the fundamental ideas informing the modern physics of reality. Physics offers deep insights into the workings of the universe but those insights come in the form of equations that often look like gobbledygook. Sean Carroll shows that they are really like meaningful poems that can help us fly over sierras to discover a miraculous multidimensional landscape alive with radiant giants, warped space-time, and bewilderingly powerful forces. High school calculus is itself a centuries-old marvel as worthy of our gaze as the Mona Lisa. And it may come as a surprise the extent to which all our most cutting-edge ideas about black holes are built on the math calculus enables. No one else could so smoothly guide readers toward grasping the very equation Einstein used to describe his theory of general relativity. In the tradition of the legendary Richard Feynman lectures presented sixty years ago, this book is an inspiring, dazzling introduction to a way of seeing that will resonate across cultural and generational boundaries for many years to come.

Author: Paralternativecelsus
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing
ISBN: 9781618971982
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Entropy and Information is a science/philosophical book. The author considers the function Entropy as the tool of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, subsequently applicable to link different areas. Entropy and Information: Unveiling the Mysterious Stuff Permeating the Universe is both holistic and interdisciplinary. I think it brings a new scope on how to face reality. It starts with basic concepts for a rationale on Entropy. Entropy is placed in context with Information Theory, a great milestone contributed by Shannon in 1948. Basically, Entropy gives us estimation on how elements or constituents interrelate in systems, the author says. As principles, entropy and information intimately deal with the human mind. Thus they are paramount in evolution, stupidity, memetics, societies and cultures. The final parts of the book are reflections and criticisms of so-called modern medicine, particularly for its uncouth business orientation. This book fills a gap in interdisciplinary science and is sure to be highly valued by a vast array of readers. Entropy, an old and poorly understood natural function, can be applied to many dimensional scenarios and areas of knowledge.About the Author: Paralternativecelus is an M.D. and a freelance philosopher interested in the process of knowledge and diagnosis. He is constantly challenging the status quo of medicine. For him, medicine is far from being a science, as some people may contrarily believe. Physical principles must be incorporated into health for breakthroughs to happen. Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/Paralternativecelsu

Author: Kofi Kissi Dompere
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030181596
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
This book presents an epistemic framework for dealing with information-knowledge and certainty-uncertainty problems within the space of quality-quantity dualities. It bridges between theoretical concepts of entropy and entropy measurements, proposing the concept and measurement of fuzzy-stochastic entropy that is applicable to all areas of knowing under human cognitive limitations over the epistemological space. The book builds on two previous monographs by the same author concerning theories of info-statics and info-dynamics, to deal with identification and transformation problems respectively. The theoretical framework is developed by using the toolboxes such as those of the principle of opposites, systems of actual-potential polarities and negative-positive dualities, under different cost-benefit time-structures. The category theory and the fuzzy paradigm of thought, under methodological constructionism-reductionism duality, are used in the fuzzy-stochastic and cost-benefit spaces to point to directions of global application in knowing, knowledge and decision-choice actions. Thus, the book is concerned with a general theory of entropy, showing how the fuzzy paradigm of thought is developed to deal with the problems of qualitative-quantitative uncertainties over the fuzzy-stochastic space, which will be applicable to conditions of soft-hard data, fact, evidence and knowledge over the spaces of problem-solution dualities, decision-choice actions in sciences, non-sciences, engineering and planning sciences to abstract acceptable information-knowledge elements.

Author: K. G. Denbigh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521256773
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
This book is about an important issue which has arisen within two of the branches of physical science - namely thermodynamics and statistical mechanics - where the notion of entropy plays an essential role. A number of scientists and information theorists have maintained that entropy is a subjective concept and is a measure of human ignorance. Such a view, if it is valid, would create some profound philosophical problems and would tend to undermine the objectivity of the scientific enterprise. Whilst the present volume is not a treatise on thermodynamics or statistical mechanics, all relevant steps in the building up of these disciplines are carefully scrutinised and it is concluded that the charge of subjectivity cannot be upheld. The widely adopted view that entropy is a measure of disorder, or of lack of information, is shown to be ambiguous, although it may be of use in certain contexts.

Author: Leon Brillouin
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486497550
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Geared toward upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, this classic resource by a giant of 20th-century mathematics applies principles of information theory to Maxwell's demon, thermodynamics, and measurement problems. 1962 edition.

Author: Mark Burgin
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813277505
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Book Description
This is the first attempt to delineate the synthetic field of the theoretical study of information, treating information as the basic phenomenon on the fundamental level of the world, encompassing nature, technology, individuals and society. The exploration of information is done within Info-computational approaches, to natural and social phenomena such as Bioinformatics, Information Physics, Informational Chemistry, Computational Physics, Cognitive and Social sciences, with special emphasis on interdisciplinary, crossdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge.The book presents results of collaboration across research fields within info-computational and info-structural frameworks, in attempt to better theoretically and conceptually capture the phenomenon of information and its dynamics (such as computation and communication), as they appear on different levels of organization, on different scales and in different contexts.

Author: Harvey S. Leff
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400861527
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
About 120 years ago, James Clerk Maxwell introduced his now legendary hypothetical "demon" as a challenge to the integrity of the second law of thermodynamics. Fascination with the demon persisted throughout the development of statistical and quantum physics, information theory, and computer science--and linkages have been established between Maxwell's demon and each of these disciplines. The demon's seductive quality makes it appealing to physical scientists, engineers, computer scientists, biologists, psychologists, and historians and philosophers of science. Until now its important source material has been scattered throughout diverse journals. This book brings under one cover twenty-five reprints, including seminal works by Maxwell and William Thomson; historical reviews by Martin Klein, Edward Daub, and Peter Heimann; information theoretic contributions by Leo Szilard, Leon Brillouin, Dennis Gabor, and Jerome Rothstein; and innovations by Rolf Landauer and Charles Bennett illustrating linkages with the limits of computation. An introductory chapter summarizes the demon's life, from Maxwell's illustration of the second law's statistical nature to the most recent "exorcism" of the demon based on a need periodically to erase its memory. An annotated chronological bibliography is included. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Author: Arieh Ben-naim
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814338281
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
The principal message of this book is that thermodynamics and statistical mechanics will benefit from replacing the unfortunate, misleading and mysterious term “entropy” with a more familiar, meaningful and appropriate term such as information, missing information or uncertainty. This replacement would facilitate the interpretation of the “driving force” of many processes in terms of informational changes and dispel the mystery that has always enshrouded entropy.It has been 140 years since Clausius coined the term “entropy”; almost 50 years since Shannon developed the mathematical theory of “information” — subsequently renamed “entropy”. In this book, the author advocates replacing “entropy” by “information”, a term that has become widely used in many branches of science.The author also takes a new and bold approach to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Information is used not only as a tool for predicting distributions but as the fundamental cornerstone concept of thermodynamics, held until now by the term “entropy”.The topics covered include the fundamentals of probability and information theory; the general concept of information as well as the particular concept of information as applied in thermodynamics; the re-derivation of the Sackur-Tetrode equation for the entropy of an ideal gas from purely informational arguments; the fundamental formalism of statistical mechanics; and many examples of simple processes the “driving force” for which is analyzed in terms of information.