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From: mcguffin@ll.mit.edu (Bruce McGuffin)
Subject: Re: Information And Entropy (models)
In-Reply-To: sparky@netaxs.com's message of 4 Nov 1994 16:10:43 GMT
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Date: Fri,  4 Nov 94 15:14:41 -0500
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   : |> Has anyone defigned the correct relationship between information and energy?
   : |> We know that E=mc^2 and the uncertanty relationships.
   : |> But how does physics currently defign information?  1/p where p is the 
   : |> probibility of the event and the units are in Bits.  Great but how much 
   : |> energy is in a bit?  Can they be created or destroyed?
   : |> 

My memory is kind of hazy on the subject, but there was an article in
Scientific American within the last 5 years about the relationship
between information theoretic notions of entropy and physical
entropy. The article title was something about Maxwell's Demon, and
the gist of it was that the paradox of Maxwell's Demon can be solved
by considering information. The cost was not in creating information,
but in destroying it. I know that doesn't make much sense, but its
been a long time, and you'll have to go read the article.

Bruce McGuffin


