---
slug: oip-convergence-edge-5
title: Convergence Edge 5: Information / Entropy ↔ Recursion / Self-Reference
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/oip-convergence-edge-5
---

**C06** (Information / Entropy) recurs-with **C08** (Recursion / Self-Reference)

**Shared pattern:** Self-description has minimum cost; information about the system is part of the system; compressibility and self-reference are linked

**Domain distance:** Thermodynamics/communication → Mathematical logic/Cognitive science (large)

**Derivation independence:** HIGH. Shannon (engineering, Bell Labs, 1948) measured information by compressibility. Godel (logic, Vienna, 1931) showed self-reference creates undecidability. Landauer (physics, IBM, 1961) showed erasure costs kT ln(2). Hofstadter (cognitive science, 1979) linked self-reference to consciousness. DNA (biology, Watson-Crick, 1953) is a self-describing molecule. Five fields, same pattern: information and reference are physical.

**Convergence strength (1–10):** 7

**Note:** The link is more conceptual than mathematical. Both nodes say: a system’s description of itself is not external to the system — it is a physical process with physical costs.

---

## Corpus map
- C06 (Information / Entropy): [C06 in the Encyclopedia](/a/convergence-encyclopedia-c06) · [C06 in the Catalogue](/a/oip-node-c06-information-entropy-compression)
- C08 (Recursion / Self-Reference): [C08 in the Encyclopedia](/a/convergence-encyclopedia-c08) · [C08 in the Catalogue](/a/oip-node-c08-recursion-self-reference-strange-loops)
- Convergence edges: [1](/a/oip-convergence-edge-1) · [2](/a/oip-convergence-edge-2) · [3](/a/oip-convergence-edge-3) · [4](/a/oip-convergence-edge-4) · [5](/a/oip-convergence-edge-5) · [6](/a/oip-convergence-edge-6) · [7](/a/oip-convergence-edge-7) · [8](/a/oip-convergence-edge-8) · [9](/a/oip-convergence-edge-9) · [10](/a/oip-convergence-edge-10)
- Catalogue hub: [Convergence Catalogue — Public Article](/a/oip-convergence-public-article) · [The Schema](/a/oip-convergence-schema)
