Maxwell's Demon (Inspires Information Theory)

[Joe Leote]

The banner on this web site is good for a laugh, so I post it despite
being off-topic here:

The Straight Dope: Fighting Ignorance Since 1973 (It's Taking Longer
Than We Thought)

Maxwell's Demon
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=74177

This discussion refers to the concept of Maxwell's demeon being an
inspiration for papers by Leo Szilard and later work by Claude Shannon.
The stated conclusion is that information gained by a person,
biological, or machine intelligence always has a real thermodynamic
cost. Entropy as heat flow from hot to cold in an irreversible manner
must occur to accumulate the negative entropy associated with what
humans recognize as organized information.

I have not read anything by Szilard or Shannon, and cannot confirm the
accuracy of anything posted at the link, but this appears to be a
coherent discussion, and consistent with what I have learned about
principles of engineering and computer science.

Joe

[Jean Erick]

     As I posted last time.  Infomation theory seems to want to cover everything.

You might have fun with it.

 

James