202408280942 knowledge, data structures, and entropy

#thought #connection
knowledge data structures entropy

Observations

• In many ways, it seems like data structures are analogous to forms of energy
  • Different data structure allow for different efficient operations (like different forms of energy allow for different mechanisms for extracting work/storing energy)
  • Examples:
    • A jumble of words (i.e. a trivial datastructure) is like a hot box of gas: can't really extract any work out of it
    • A sorted string is like... a heavy box?
      • You can do work and insert elements (like you can do work and lift the box up)
      • And then you can extract information about the elements by searching/removing (like you can then extract work from the box by lowering it)
      • observation: via local operations, I can deduce global information. E.g, by observing a value $X$ in the middle, now I know that every to the left of it is small than $X$, and everything to the right is larger than $X$
• Things that knowledge allows for:
  • convention and coordination: via common knowledge
    • e.g. if I know that you know that I know... that we're going to meet at DIG for lunch, that's what allows us to meet up
  • invention:
    • this is like the compression perspective on knowledge
    • knowledge gives us a way to generalize from what we've seen. Or perhaps, that is exactly what knowledge is: knowledge is generalization
  • catalysis

Questions

• [?] what is the difference between a library and a pile of books?
  • to what extent is there an analogy along the lines of thermodynamics and information
  • what's weird is that, while an organized set of atoms moving at different speeds can be used to do work, it's less clear what an organized library lets you do...
• [?] what does knowledge do?

  • is it different from/same as information or memory?

  • [?] is knowledge compression? generalization?

    • related to uncomplexity and resource theory:
• [?] is there an analogue of

Followups

• what is uncomplexity

Raw

2024-08-28

• [?] what is knowledge??
  • first of all, observe that pure memorization of fact is useless. I don't read a book just so that I can store the fact that Benjamin Franklin flew a kite and it was struck by lightning. That's useless if it doesn't contribute to a model of the world. Lightning is electricity. Franklin was smart. Innovation requires audacity.
    • knowledge is generalization
    • in that sense, perhaps knowledge is just a way to propagate past coincidences forward to future structures. Ala symmetry breaking.