> On 10 Mar 2021, at 00:19, 'Brent Meeker' via Everything List > <everything-list@googlegroups.com> wrote: > > > > On 3/9/2021 2:00 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote: >> On Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 6:00 AM Jason Resch <jasonre...@gmail.com >> <mailto:jasonre...@gmail.com>> wrote: >> On Tue, Mar 9, 2021 at 9:41 AM Lawrence Crowell >> <goldenfieldquaterni...@gmail.com <mailto:goldenfieldquaterni...@gmail.com>> >> wrote: >> Nothingness is a paradoxical thing. Does nothingness exist? If so, then by >> having existential properties it is not pure nothingness. If nothingness >> does not exist then there must exist something. In a sense God is the >> antithesis of nothingness and in a sense shares the same paradoxical issue. >> >> There is a strange and paradoxical sort of identity between nothing and >> everything, particularly as it relates to information theory. Insofar as the >> total set of all possibilities has zero information content. > > Even if it tells us what is not possible? I think you're getting in over > your head. What kind of "possible" to you mean? Simple not > self-contradictory? Nomological? Or what? > >> >> >> A random message string can contain zero information, but still exist -- >> written on a piece of paper, for example. > > I agree with your basic point, but a random string carries maximum > information, per Shannon. That's why maximally compressed string looks > random; although you can't really define random in the information theoretic > sense for finite strings.
You can define randomness for finite strings, up to a constant. Most universal machine will agree on some large string being random, but can differ on strings shorter than themselves, say. See the book by Calllude on the randomness of finite string. This is usually defined first, and then an infinite sequence is said to be random if almost all his initial segments are. Bruno > > Brent > >> This idea that zero information equates to 'nothing' is just an elementary >> confusion of categories. >> >> This is the main subject of Russell Standish's book: Theory of Nothing: >> https://www.hpcoders.com.au/nothing.html >> <https://www.hpcoders.com.au/nothing.html> >> >> >> That is why Russell got so many things wrong in this book. >> >> Bruce >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Everything List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >> <mailto:everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAFxXSLTXSHt%3DASkdBiA%2Bh_-4d3FCAHMX7puXWq9_1tG%3DnjbXSg%40mail.gmail.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAFxXSLTXSHt%3DASkdBiA%2Bh_-4d3FCAHMX7puXWq9_1tG%3DnjbXSg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > <mailto:everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/60facf25-7c8b-1cd6-a1fc-f20d80406479%40verizon.net > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/60facf25-7c8b-1cd6-a1fc-f20d80406479%40verizon.net?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/386FCCCB-5232-4ED9-87DB-8A6C4EFD2E0A%40ulb.ac.be.
