Determinism: Difference between revisions
→Information by Claude Shannon
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=== Information by Claude Shannon === | === Information by Claude Shannon === | ||
As stated in the [[Information|article about information]], Claude Shannon defines information as how suprising a message is to a reciever it is sent to. | As stated in the [[Information|article about information]], Claude Shannon defines information as how suprising a message is to a reciever it is sent to. Shannon quantifies that value of surprise as the amount of reduced uncertainty of the reciever, known as the information entropy (also Shannon entropy), which is probabilistic. | ||
According to Shannon, the more likely an event is to occur, the lower the informative content of a message | According to Shannon, the more likely an event is to occur, the lower the informative content of a message that is delivered to the reciever, becomes. | ||
In a deterministic world, however, any discussion about the probability of an event occurring would become redundant | In a deterministic world, however, any discussion about the probability of an event occurring would become redundant. Since all events would happen with certainty, there would be no room for alternative events, which would imply that, according to Shannon’s theory, the role of information could be drastically diminished. | ||
How much the concept of information would lose its significance, depends on the receiver's ability to deduce the content of a message independently (by predicting it), relying on his knowledge about natural laws, his logical reasoning and how much he knows about previous events and their causal relationships to the event in question. | How much exactly the concept of information would lose its significance, depends on the receiver's ability to deduce the content of a message independently (by predicting it), relying on his knowledge about natural laws, his logical reasoning and how much he knows about previous events and their causal relationships to the event in question. | ||
In a deterministic world, where humans would have the ability to deduce any event | In a deterministic world, where humans would have the ability to deduce any event, were given enough data to do so, and would use correct logical reasoning, no amount of information would be obtained from a message about any event, rendering the concept of information, in Shannon's sense, obsolete. | ||
Realistically though, humans would always need at least a basic set of informational statements, which they could use as a starting point to deduce new information based on their own reasoning. | Realistically though, humans would always need at least a basic set of informational statements, which they could use as a starting point to deduce new information based on their own reasoning. | ||
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This basic information would represent the fundamental building blocks of the events in the entire universe, fully sufficient to deduce any event at any point in time, if logic was applied correctly. These fundamental blocks would include the first events in the universe, all natural laws and the definition of logic. | This basic information would represent the fundamental building blocks of the events in the entire universe, fully sufficient to deduce any event at any point in time, if logic was applied correctly. These fundamental blocks would include the first events in the universe, all natural laws and the definition of logic. | ||
Since humans are | Since humans are prone to logical errors, their ability to always predict an event correctly is not ensured. The informational content of a message about an event they failed to deduce correctly, might still be present to a certain level, but would be restricted by the extent of their error. | ||
All in all, it can be said, that based on Shannon's idea of information, determinism would likely limit the presence of real information with a surprise | All in all, it can be said, that based on Shannon's idea of information, determinism would likely limit the presence of real information with a surprise factor, but not fully remove it, because any logic used to predict an event requires premises in the form of knowledge about previous events and natural laws. Furthermore, humans, practically might misapply their logic, leading to incorrect predictions. | ||
== '''Knowledge and Determinism''' == | == '''Knowledge and Determinism''' == | ||