Data compressibility, physical entropy, and evolutionaryapriori relation between observer and object
Konrad Oexle · Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics · 1995
The thermodynamic and epistemological relevance of an evolutionary priori relation between observer and object is analyzed in reference to Occam's razor and Zurek's physical entropy. It is demonstrated that the observer's a priori relation to the object determines the minimal demand for observed data. Therefore, physical entropy is relative and the maximal amount of net work that can be extracted depends on the observer. A formal quantitative analysis is presented using the concepts of algorithmic information theory. Zurek's algorithmic information distance is applied as an in-principle measure of the evolutionary a priori relation.