The Missing Piece of Claude Shannon's World-Changing Information Theory, the Birth of the Digital Age

The father of the digital age is Claude Shannon. Without his work on information theory, there would likely be no internet, cryptocurrency, digital computers, or telecommunications systems as we know it.

As awesome as his work was, there are still some important pieces of the puzzle that haven't been figured out yet. Let's find out what they are.

But first, we'll show how time relates to information theory. The model that Earth-2 uses for this (and everything else) is derived from what I call the "God Equation', a maxim of how perspective itself works.

1 = Order = Past // validated information
2 = Chaos = Future // unvalidated information
3 = Interaction = "Present" // consensus of information (the logical narrative)
5 = Reality = time-space (all time and space)

Our reality is not the 'present' because the present cannot be experienced directly. By the time you experience it, it is already 'past'. Our present could be considered the processing point where the laziest bits of information come together to reach consensus.

Reality is the totality of all information, whether validated or not, and our interaction with it in a framework of perspective.

Information is everywhere. We can only perceive information and cannot perceive of anything that isn't information. Further, we cannot know of any information beyond our perspective.

However, we generally perceive information that requires the least amount of interactions (the 'laziest information' in the universe). If, for example, all you've ever perceived are black and white objects and you're presented with a green apple you would most likely build a consensus of the apple being black or white.

Information is simply our futile attempt to perceive a 'Void' (that which is beyond perspective). All information exists all ready and depends on our perspective for its existence. We cannot possibly perceive of the Void, so this information seems to go on forever.

When you're looking at our Sun, for example, you are perceiving ALL information about the Sun such as ultraviolet radiation and how it looked five million years ago ("unvalidated information"). You then build a consensus picture about the Sun by only validating the information that is most relative to you and leaving everything else out.

That is to say, you are experiencing only that laziest bits of information that require the least number of interactions. It could be said that perspective wastes no energy.

Unvalidated information is more than just 'future' information that cannot yet be remembered, but is information that is not yet ordered.

Enter Bits

The problem with analogue technology was that it was difficult for the receiver to duplicate information from the source.

That's because as information spreads across space it gains entropy (or, noise).

Order = Time (and relationships)
Chaos = Space (and interaction)

The "noise" of entropy is our Chaos element. As an analogue signal traversed space, its Chaos increased.

What Shannon did was to find a way to decrease entropy in communications. Decreasing entropy increases the ability to communicate, because the information can relate (and thus be defined).

To do this, Shannon devised a method where information was tokenized into a precise unit that could be measured, manipulated and transmitted: digital bits.

As you will recall from the previous page:

A token is just a proxy to interface with something else. So by tokenizing things, we allow for easier interactions. That is how the universe works (because nothing can be perceived directly). We perceive the token of something rather than the thing itself, then interact with it. This removes friction from interactions (or transactions) that would otherwise be more complex or expensive. Perceiving the sub-atomic particles of your hand, for example, would be too costly for your perspective, so a proxy is perceived instead (though even the sub-atomic particles are proxies of their own).

The word "hello" itself is a token, but Shannon tokenized it even more to a string of 0s and 1s so that it could be transmitted more easily across space.

By creating this binary digit-token, Shannon increased the possibility of duplication of information, which decreases its interactions.

Order
Information scale. This is validated information that has the possibility of duplication. // "This bit can be duplicated anywhere, in any space" // This is information relating with other information.

Chaos
Information magnitude ("information entropy", or information uncertainty). This is unvalidated information that has the possibility of expansion. // "This is either 0 or 1" or, "This 0 bit can expand to 1 at any time" or, "It is off now, but can turn on at any time." // This is information interacting with other information.

Consensus
Interaction of possibilities This is the context of possibilities, or the logical narrative of your reality. // "What is the most logical thing to happen next?" or, "What next bit of information requires the least number of interactions?" // This is the 'lazy information' in time-space.

Although it is now obvious that Chaos increases over space and Order increases over time, it is perhaps less obvious that time contracts information whereas space expands information.

'Contracting information' allows us to not only define things, but use and store or even remember information. Shannon wanted to decrease entropy by contracting information into binary digits of 0 and 1, the digital code in modern electronics.

'Expanding information' was, understandably, missed. Why would you want to increase entropy?

If decreasing entropy increases the ability to relate (allowing for communication), then increasing entropy increases the ability to interact. When we increase entropy, new varieties of information can be produced.

The first 5 digits of the Fibonacci sequence and (true) prime number sequence gives us 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, and 5. This is decreasing entropy, and it allows fundamental information about everything to be communicated. (This is also the source of Chaol's 'God Equation')

But increasing entropy gives us the rest of both sets and illustrates an endless variety of information that can be produced.

To take an other example, let's say you had only 5 words to work with:

Decreasing entropy to communicate information: I will go tomorrow

Increasing entropy to produce information: 1) Tomorrow I will go; 2) Will I go tomorrow; 3) Go tomorrow I will; etc

How does the Void become 'everything'? By increasing entropy and Chaos.

How do you experiencing anything? By decreasing entropy and Chaos.