[extropy-chat] signals or noise?

[scerir]

From: "Damien Broderick" 

> This topic was discussed in detail and depth 
> 9 years ago on this list, and I mined that 
> discussion in my book THE SPIKE [...]

Eh, les proto-extropiens!

There is an interesting discussion here
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9907500
about all that.

Shannon wrote that S = - SUM_i p_i log p_i
where S is the amount of information carried
by a channel per message, p_i is the 
probability of transmission of a certain message
m_i through the channel. S is maximized when
p_i are all equal (all messages m_i have the
same probability). But in this case the resulting
flow of data tend to appear random.
In statistical mechanics instead of messages m_i 
there are particles (i.e. photons) and instead of
the amount of information S there is the
amount of entropy. The maximization of entropy 
gives rise to a 'blackbody' radiation,
for photons. Also in this case signals tend to
appear like noise.