Entropy and Communication

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

On Thu, 13 Oct 1994, William Evans Bailey wrote:

> One might get the impression 
> from the following note that quantum wave mechanics, entropy, and 
> "chaos theory" are all intimately interrelated, all part of the 
> order/disorder/information "thing."  They are not. When you start 
> to use these concepts in such a breezy manner (really, in the form of
> name-dropping) they begin to lose their meaning, which is provisional
> and limited.  Like, I don't have any idea what is meant by entropy "as 
> exhaustion" or "as multiplication" in the first place.  

AFAIK, I never stated anything like that. I never mentioned "chaos theory"
for instance, not to talk about quantum wave mechanics etc. (When I 
talked about "wavelike general dynamics" I didn't have "quantum wave
mechanics" in mind at all.) Hayles's angle should be distinquished from, 
for example,  the one Susan Strehle has in her 
_Fiction in the Quantum Universe_. According to Strehle contemporary 
fiction ultimately reflects the new developments in physics, her theory 
is kind of mimetic positivism. When it comes to Hayles's
articles, the highly problematic relations between physics, information
theory, and art are just what she concentrates on. Many problems, she 
insists, have their origins in the identification of informational
entropy with physical entropy. Maybe you better read those essays
before we could continue this. Why read my enigmatic summaries when
you can read the original articles? (If somebody can't find them, s/he
can send me her/his snail-mail address.) I was somewhat short-spoken 
just to urge people to read them. That's why all the name-dropping, short
descriptions, etc.


Heikki