POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Conservation of sanity : Re: Conservation of sanity Server Time
28 Jul 2024 16:24:01 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Conservation of sanity  
From: Warp
Date: 25 Jun 2014 10:08:56
Message: <53aad7f8@news.povray.org>
clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> Makes sense; after all, according to quantum mechanics there /is/ such a 
> thing as conservation of information...

If I understand correctly, "information" is a bit vague of a concept,
but it's mostly linked to entropy. In other words, roughtly speaking,
an increase in information means a decrease in entropy.

Which thus means that the total amount of information in a closed
system cannot increase. Information can, of course, increase locally,
but that means that entropy has also likewise increased by at least
that much somewhere else inside the same closed system.

For example, by writing this very text I'm adding information to a
system, and thus decreasing entropy, but at the same time I'm increasing
entropy by at least that much (mainly in the form of waste heat.)

What I'm getting at is that while the total amount of entropy in a
closed system can never decrease, it *can* increase. If information
is closely correlated to entropy, it means that the total amount
of information in a closed system can likewise decrease.

But then, perhaps "information" in QM means something else entirely,
and is more related to the various conservation laws (such as
conservation of momentum).

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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