Complexity, Entropy And The Physics Of Information / Edition 1

by Wojciech H. Zurek

Overview

This book has emerged from a meeting held during the week of May 29 to June 2, 1989, at St. John’s College in Santa Fe under the auspices of the Santa Fe Institute. The (approximately 40) official participants as well as equally numerous “groupies” were enticed to Santa Fe by the above “manifesto.” The book—like the “Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information” meeting explores not only the connections between quantum and classical physics, information and its transfer, computation, and their significance for the formulation of physical theories, but it also considers the origins and evolution of the information-processing entities, their complexity, and the manner in which they analyze their perceptions to form models of the Universe. As a result, the contributions can be divided into distinct sections only with some difficulty. Indeed, I regard this degree of overlapping as a measure of the success of the meeting. It signifies consensus about the important questions and on the anticipated answers: they presumably lie somewhere in the “border territory,” where information, physics, complexity, quantum, and computation all meet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780201515060
Publisher:	Westview Press
Publication date:	01/22/1990
Series:	Santa Fe Institute Series , #8
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Foreword by Wojciech H. Zurek — 1. Physics of information — 2. Law of Physics and Law of Computation — 3. Complexity and Evolution — 4. Physics of Computation — 5. Probability Entropy, and Quantum — 6. Quantum Theory and Measurement — Indices.