Entropy and the Self-Organization of Information and Value

Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Rudolf Clausius, and Léon Brillouin considered certain “values” as key quantities in their descriptions of market competition, natural selection, thermodynamic processes, and information exchange, respectively. None of those values can be computed from elementary properti...

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Main Authors: Rainer Feistel, Werner Ebeling
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2016-05-01
Series:Entropy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/18/5/193
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author Rainer Feistel
Werner Ebeling
author_facet Rainer Feistel
Werner Ebeling
author_sort Rainer Feistel
collection DOAJ
description Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Rudolf Clausius, and Léon Brillouin considered certain “values” as key quantities in their descriptions of market competition, natural selection, thermodynamic processes, and information exchange, respectively. None of those values can be computed from elementary properties of the particular object they are attributed to, but rather values represent emergent, irreducible properties. In this paper, such values are jointly understood as information values in certain contexts. For this aim, structural information is distinguished from symbolic information. While the first can be associated with arbitrary physical processes or structures, the latter requires conventions which govern encoding and decoding of the symbols which form a message. As a value of energy, Clausius’ entropy is a universal measure of the structural information contained in a thermodynamic system. The structural information of a message, in contrast to its meaning, can be evaluated by Shannon’s entropy of communication. Symbolic information is found only in the realm of life, such as in animal behavior, human sociology, science, or technology, and is often cooperatively valuated by competition. Ritualization is described here as a universal scenario for the self-organization of symbols by which symbolic information emerges from structural information in the course of evolution processes. Emergent symbolic information exhibits the novel fundamental code symmetry which prevents the meaning of a message from being reducible to the physical structure of its carrier. While symbols turn arbitrary during the ritualization transition, their structures preserve information about their evolution history.
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spelling doaj.art-d4af8a9421c942e6ad8379c4b27a3b7e2022-12-22T02:07:07ZengMDPI AGEntropy1099-43002016-05-0118519310.3390/e18050193e18050193Entropy and the Self-Organization of Information and ValueRainer Feistel0Werner Ebeling1Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, 18119 Rostock, GermanyInstitute of Physics, Humboldt University, 12489 Berlin, GermanyAdam Smith, Charles Darwin, Rudolf Clausius, and Léon Brillouin considered certain “values” as key quantities in their descriptions of market competition, natural selection, thermodynamic processes, and information exchange, respectively. None of those values can be computed from elementary properties of the particular object they are attributed to, but rather values represent emergent, irreducible properties. In this paper, such values are jointly understood as information values in certain contexts. For this aim, structural information is distinguished from symbolic information. While the first can be associated with arbitrary physical processes or structures, the latter requires conventions which govern encoding and decoding of the symbols which form a message. As a value of energy, Clausius’ entropy is a universal measure of the structural information contained in a thermodynamic system. The structural information of a message, in contrast to its meaning, can be evaluated by Shannon’s entropy of communication. Symbolic information is found only in the realm of life, such as in animal behavior, human sociology, science, or technology, and is often cooperatively valuated by competition. Ritualization is described here as a universal scenario for the self-organization of symbols by which symbolic information emerges from structural information in the course of evolution processes. Emergent symbolic information exhibits the novel fundamental code symmetry which prevents the meaning of a message from being reducible to the physical structure of its carrier. While symbols turn arbitrary during the ritualization transition, their structures preserve information about their evolution history.http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/18/5/193entropyinformationemergent propertiesself-organizationritualizationsymbolscode symmetryinformation valueselective valueexchange valuemoney
spellingShingle Rainer Feistel
Werner Ebeling
Entropy and the Self-Organization of Information and Value
Entropy
entropy
information
emergent properties
self-organization
ritualization
symbols
code symmetry
information value
selective value
exchange value
money
title Entropy and the Self-Organization of Information and Value
title_full Entropy and the Self-Organization of Information and Value
title_fullStr Entropy and the Self-Organization of Information and Value
title_full_unstemmed Entropy and the Self-Organization of Information and Value
title_short Entropy and the Self-Organization of Information and Value
title_sort entropy and the self organization of information and value
topic entropy
information
emergent properties
self-organization
ritualization
symbols
code symmetry
information value
selective value
exchange value
money
url http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/18/5/193
work_keys_str_mv AT rainerfeistel entropyandtheselforganizationofinformationandvalue
AT wernerebeling entropyandtheselforganizationofinformationandvalue