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Time as information
Sep. 24th, 2015 07:27 amThere's has to be a connection between time and information, at least from a historical perspective. Now we take it for granted that computing, i.e. fast and consistent execution of complex algorithms, is difficult for humans. Therefore, we deploy computers on a massive scale to augment our natural ability to create algorithms with artificial computational power.
We also take it for granted that accessing time is easy for humans. But when we go back into history we easily discover that it took the humanity an enormous intellectual effort to learn how to track time. I wonder whether we had the concept of time at all if we didn't have regular sunrises and sunsets.
As a side note, it's somewhat unfortunate that theoretical information-related problems are treated now mostly by computer scientists. The problems should be, and most likely will be, the subject of a separate information science.
We also take it for granted that accessing time is easy for humans. But when we go back into history we easily discover that it took the humanity an enormous intellectual effort to learn how to track time. I wonder whether we had the concept of time at all if we didn't have regular sunrises and sunsets.
As a side note, it's somewhat unfortunate that theoretical information-related problems are treated now mostly by computer scientists. The problems should be, and most likely will be, the subject of a separate information science.
