Re: The randomfunction

From: Programmer Dude (Chris_at_Sonnack.com)
Date: 12/09/03 

Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2003 13:30:12 -0600

Espen Amundsen wrote:

>>> The idea that we can in large group inflict on randomgenerators
>>> is the same that we can move things with the force of mind.
>>
>> There is a significant difference between the amount of energy
>> required for a single mind to move a material object and that
>> required for a union of all minds to somehow affect the balance
>> of random noise in the local fabric.
>
> True, but the idea is the same.

True. Like the idea of pushing a beachball and pushing a mountain
being the same. Implementation is another matter, though. (-:

>>> Im a realist and can only relate to things empirically.
>>
>> Yep. Time will tell.
>
> empiri = what you know by experience

And through testing, yes. I was agreeing. What's your point?

>> Read some by serious writers who know their subject, and can
>> communicate some of the wonderful weirdness of quantum reality
>> and human consciousness (two fields we only begin to understand
>> and only imperfectly).
>
> Could you give me some names/titles?

THE TAO OF PHYSICS is a good one. Just about anything by Feynman
(Richard P.) is very accessible (I particularly enjoyed QED). And
THE SEARCH FOR SCHRODINGER'S CAT (John Gribbin) is excellent.

There's more, but that should get you started.

>>> ...Diana was the English princess...
>>
>> I never cared, but lots of USAians were bananas over her.
>
> I bet 3 billion Chinese and Indians didnt care + the rest of Asia
> and Africa (and probably south America)

I can't speak for them, but I do know this: never underestimate
the power of the global media. McLuhan's "Global Village" is
pretty much at hand. It wouldn't *surprise* me if people around
the globe weren't more aware of Princess D than one might expect.

>>> But I wouldnt be surprised if there was a kind of entropy
>>> between order and unorder.
>>
>> Eh? Entropy is the *measure* of disorder in a system.
>
> Entropy is a measure for the energy difference between two
> materials.

Nope. It's the amount of uncertainty (and/or information) in a
data set (casually speaking: the amount of disorder in a system).
In systems where energy--and its state--are predominent, then
entropy is measuring the state and degree of the energy (e.g.
in the second law of thermo-D).

But information systems are also have entropy, and in that case
we're talking about the accuracy (specifically, lack of) of that
information. Shannon and his Information Theory really codified
entropy as a mathmatical concept. 

-- 
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