Pages

Saturday, April 11, 2020

Fleeting thoughts: Graphic and information: both function and representation


Prehistory and background:
One of the most universal form for representing scientific results in all experimental sciences is graphic in the sense of a continuous (or smooth) curve visualizing the link of the experimental results as a certain function (often analytically unknown). It rests on one of the first fundamental synthesis in mathematics due to Rene Descartes: analytical geometry.
Its technics is elementary. Any series of results implies both curve, the abscissa of which is interpreted as time and the ordinate as the common quantity of the results at issue, and corresponding function if the results are approximated as a relevant smooth curve.
Thus that graphic represents and equates both unordered (and even unorderable) set of all results as a single whole and them as a well-ordered series in time. The unit of those representing and equating is that of information: a bit      
Thesis: The graphic described as above represents the scientific results as information (independently of being true or false) directly
A few comments of the thesis:
One can think of any results under ones and the same conditions and sharing a certain quantity as both set and series therefore suggesting their equivalence. Then both visualization as a curve and analytical representation as a function order them choosing just one single series to represent the set. 
The essence in both cases of curve or function is choice resulting in the ordering. Both concept and quantity, which correspond unambiguously to both choice and ordering, are those of information. Furthermore, information unifies directly them without any intermediate link. Consequently. the graphic should demonstrate information in thus visualizing results immediately. 
Indeed, the unit of information, a bit is interpretable as the elementary choice between two equally probable alternatives, and the series of choice generates a well-ordering.     

No comments: