Tag: Patterns

Bottom view, along the trunk, of the fresh green foliage of a beech tree in the spring, with the branches clearly visible as veins for the life juices.

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post

News
Date
May 14, 2024

Categorized
Information Theory

Tagged
Consciousness, Information, Intelligent Design, James Tour, John West, Materialism, Matter, mind, Patterns, William Dembski}

Dembski: Information is the Basic Stuff of Reality

_{It's information all the way down, says mathematician and philosopher William Dembski} _{News
May 14, 2024

2

Information Theory}

If information, not matter, is the basic stuff of reality, how would this change the way we look at the world? On a classic episode of ID the Future, Center for Science and Culture Managing Director John West sits down with mathematician and philosopher William Dembski to discuss his 2014 book Being as Communion: A Metaphysics of Information. Building on his previous books making a case for intelligent design, Being as Communion presents a metaphysical framework for an informational world that can accommodate intelligent design. One of Dembski’s key arguments is that matter isn’t the fundamental unit of reality. “Everything that we call matter reveals itself through patterns, through information,” says Dr. Dembski. To get to the heart of the matter, we must look Read More ›

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post

Eric Holloway
Date
October 1, 2020

Categorized
Information Theory

Tagged
Featured, Form, Information, Kolmogorov complexity, Patterns, Shannon information}

They Say This Is An Information Economy. So What Is Information?

_{How, exactly, is an article in the news different from a random string of letters and punctuation marks?} _{Eric Holloway
October 1, 2020

4

Information Theory}

We know information when we see it. An article contains information. A photograph contains information. The thoughts in our mind contain information. So does a computer program and so do our genomes. Yet other things we see around us clearly do not contain information. A handful of toothpicks dropped on the ground does not. Nor do the swirling tea leaves in a cup. Neither does a pair of tossed dice nor a sequence of 100 coin flips. But mere disorder is not the clue. An intricate snowflake does not contain information either. Can we state the difference between the article and the scattered toothpicks precisely? That’s tricky. Both Claude Shannon and Andrey Kolmogorov came up with information metrics. But the Read More ›

Abstract 3d render, geometric composition, yellow background design with cubes

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post

News
Date
September 30, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Science

Tagged
Big Data, Carmen Reinhart, Featured, Gary Smith, Jay Cordes, Ken Rogoff, Patterns, Phantom Pattern Problem (book), Science Journals}

Interview: New Book Outlines the Perils of Big (Meaningless) Data

_{Gary Smith, co-author with Jay Cordes of Phantom Patterns, shows why human wisdom and common sense are more important than ever now} _{News
September 30, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Science}

Economist Gary Smith and statistician Jay Cordes have a new book out, The Phantom Pattern Problem: The mirage of big data, on why we should not trust Big Data over common sense. In their view, it’s a dangerous mix: Humans naturally assume that all patterns are significant. But AI cannot grasp the meaning of any pattern, significant or not. Thus, from massive number crunches, we may “learn” (if that’s the right word) that Stock prices can be predicted from Google searches for the word debt. Stock prices can be predicted from the number of Twitter tweets that use “calm” words. An unborn baby’s sex can be predicted by the amount of breakfast cereal the mother eats. Bitcoin prices can be Read More ›