INFORMATION HALF-LIFE
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1676 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Human sciences |
- “… the amount of time for half of the given informational set presently serving as a base for tying a society successfully to it environment to become useless” (T.R. YOUNG & G. SWARTZMAN, 1974, p.260).
The authors who introduced this somewhat metaphorical concept, (obviously by analogy with half-life of radioactive compounds) used it to construct the following “general principle of irreversible sociothermodynamics:… The shorter the information half-life of a system, the shorter the turnaround time for information handling must be in order to maintain system integrity” (Ibid).
They add: “As the rate of change of a system or its environment increases, the half-life of the information stored in the system decreases. In a stable society (a society in a stable environment), the half-life of the information stored in traditions, myths, plays, and everyday wisdom is counted in the centuries and is sufficient to meet the ordinary contingencies of decision-making” (Ibid).
Elaborating on this concept, we may possibly distinguish:
- data half-life, as very short (but in any case longer for global long-term data);
- information half-life, as short to medium, according to the type of information;
- values and norms half-life, as long to very long
- wisdom and art half-life, as very long and even possibly limitless.
If the physical analogy may be pushed farther, the degradation of information should be asymptotic and possibly, it would never become totally extinct.