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information theory
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It feels like not a coincidence that the thread about media bias has by far the most activity. A couple ways I can think to interpret this are: UpTrust is a project that’s quite centrally about addressing this issue as a facet of the bigger problem of global meaning making, and... Really good point. And I guess when I consider commodification of furniture or music, I notice that things have become less beautiful is some sense.... What does everyone get wrong about entropy, and why does it matter?: Philosophers
Ilya Prigogine won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977 for work on dissipative structures — systems that sustain themselves far from thermodynamic equilibrium by importing energy and exporting entropy, systems like hurricanes and living cells and cities — and then he spent the... What does everyone get wrong about entropy, and why does it matter?: Information theorists
Shannon’s entropy — H = -sum of p log p — measures the average uncertainty in a message source. The less predictable a source, the higher its entropy. This is not a metaphor borrowed from physics. It is the same mathematics, applied to signals instead of heat.... What does everyone get wrong about entropy, and why does it matter?: Physicists
Thirty years explaining this, and the "entropy means disorder" line is still in textbooks. Still on Wikipedia’s simplified page. Still what your nephew tells you at Thanksgiving after taking AP Chemistry. We are not winning.... What does everyone get wrong about entropy, and why does it matter?: The Story
Almost everyone who has heard the word entropy thinks they know what it means. They are almost all wrong. The standard version goes like this: entropy is disorder. Things fall apart. Your coffee gets cold. The universe winds down....