Information Is (Only) Probability

Proceedings

article

Riccardo Manzotti¹ 

[1] Department of Business, Law, and Consumer Behavior, IULM University

关键词: information;    entropy;    Shannon;    causal overdetermination;    reification;    ontology;   

DOI  :  10.3390/proceedings2022081036

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Is information a real entity, or is it only a useful mathematical notion? Shannon’s equation and a consolidated tradition have led many scientists and laymen to consider information as some kind of physical, additive quantity. The very well-known argument in favour of information as a physical quantity has not reached any definitive conclusion. Much has been derived from Shannon’s formula, which was introduced to provide a convenient logarithmic measure that might be practically useful and close to most intuitive feelings. Shannon never insisted on the ontological status of information, which might be revealed to be a lot less committing than is often believed. The bottom line is that information might be a convenient mathematical notation to express the probability of independent configurations in a system.

【 授权许可】

CC BY