Ask A Genius 694: Claude Shannon and Information Theory
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2022/01/19
[Recording Start]
Rick Rosner: The first significant paper on Information Theory was authored by Claude Shannon in 1948 at Bell Labs. I’m interested in researching the historical usage of the term ‘information’ to see its evolution. Before 1948, the concept of information existed, but it lacked a mathematical framework. Interestingly, the development of quantum mechanics occurred from around 1900 through 1920 or 1930, well before the mathematical concept of information was established. Therefore, the original ideas of quantum mechanics were formed without this mathematical understanding of information. It’s plausible that even a century later, the connection between quantum mechanics and information theory hasn’t been fully realized.
There’s also the idea that as the universe expands, or as its scale shrinks, it requires more information about itself. This notion implies that gravitational forces are inherent in the dynamics of how information defines and expands space. The most noticeable gravitational effects are between massive, nearby objects. This phenomenon could be interpreted as a failure of space to expand uniformly, suggesting that gravitational shaping of space may regulate information density. If the universe expanded uniformly, this change wouldn’t be perceptible from within, as the scale and proportions remain constant.
Gravitational force might be seen as an equalizer, balancing the amount of information generated. Nearby objects, like Alpha Centauri or the next closest galaxy, share a long history and thus have a lot of shared information. In contrast, a distant galaxy, 15 billion light years away, represents a different stage in the universe’s history, showing us its early form. For proximate objects, the shared history means less new information is generated between them. This lack of new information could be what we perceive as gravitational attraction. In essence, space doesn’t expand or shrink as much between nearby objects due to this reduced generation of new information. While this concept isn’t entirely clear and could be articulated more precisely, it’s a fascinating area for exploration. It suggests that what we see as gravity might also reflect the information dynamics of space. This perspective is another angle to consider, similar to how black holes might be more accurately described as ‘blackish’ rather than completely black.
[Recording End]
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