---
slug: convergence-encyclopedia-c06
title: Convergence Encyclopedia: C06 — Information / Entropy / Compression
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/convergence-encyclopedia-c06
---

**F1 — Tier.** T0 (mathematical definitions of Shannon entropy, Kolmogorov complexity) / T1 (physical instantiation via Landauer).

**F2 — Sources.** 
- Shannon, C.E. (1948). “A mathematical theory of communication.” Bell System Technical Journal, 27(3), 379–423; 27(4), 623–656.
- Boltzmann, L. (1877). “Uber die Beziehung zwischen dem zweiten Hauptsatze der mechanischen Warmetheorie und der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung.” Wiener Berichte, 76, 373–435.
- Gibbs, J.W. (1902). Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics. Yale University Press.
- Kolmogorov, A.N. (1965). “Three approaches to the quantitative definition of information.” Problems of Information Transmission, 1(1), 1–7.
- Landauer, R. (1961). “Irreversibility and heat generation in the computing process.” IBM Journal of Research and Development, 5(3), 183–191.
- Jaynes, E.T. (1957). “Information theory and statistical mechanics.” Physical Review, 106(4), 620–630.

**F3 — Domains.** Communications engineering, statistical physics, machine learning (cross-entropy loss), genetics (information content of DNA), thermodynamics (entropy).

**F4 — Scale.** Bit in a register (~10⁻¹⁰ m, transistor scale) → entropy of the observable universe (~10⁸⁰ bits, Lloyd 2002).

**F5 — Falsifier.** Erasure of information below the Landauer bound (kT ln 2 per bit) — a physically realizable computation that dissipates less heat than information-theoretic minimum. This would violate the link between information and thermodynamics.

**F6 — Rival (strongest form).** Information is a human construct mapped onto physics. The mathematical formalism (entropy, mutual information) is a tool for prediction; it does not denote a physical quantity. “Information” in Shannon’s sense is defined relative to a coding scheme — it is observer-relative. The convergence with thermodynamics is formal analogy, not identity. (Dispute: Jaynes vs. objective Bayesianism; Landauer vs. pure-information theorists.)

**F7 — Independence.** HIGH — with flag. Shannon (engineering, Bell Labs), Boltzmann (physics, Vienna), Landauer (physics/ computation, IBM) arrived independently. BUT: All three cross-pollinated at or were influenced by the Macy Conferences (1946–1953) on cybernetics. Wiener, von Neumann, and Shannon were all participants. The independence assessment is MODERATE for the conceptual convergence; HIGH for the mathematical formalisms themselves.

**F8 — Pattern type.** Mathematical.

**F9 — Maps.** A2 (thermodynamic/computational), A11 (observer-epistemology), A7 (pattern geometry).

---

## Corpus map
- Previous: [Convergence Encyclopedia: C05](/a/convergence-encyclopedia-c05)
- Next: [Convergence Encyclopedia: C07](/a/convergence-encyclopedia-c07)
- Encyclopedia start: [The Schema](/a/convergence-encyclopedia-schema)
- Same node, other planes: [Catalogue node C06](/a/oip-node-c06-information-entropy-compression) · [Catalogue hub](/a/oip-convergence-public-article)
- Edges touching C06: [convergence edge 5](/a/oip-convergence-edge-5)
- Kin corpora: [Total Structure](/a/oip-total-structure) · [Signature of the Grain](/a/oip-sog-preamble-axioms)
