Van Campen

Van Campen looks at our disorderly (entropic) society through the lens of information. As an Information Theorist, he understands that life and the non-harmful functionality of all living systems depend on cognition i.e. the processing of all relevant information. Any man-made system that ignores or suppresses information is going into entropy which means disorder. Entropy can be understood as the unavailability of information. Only those systems that use all relevant information survive. This...See more

Van Campen looks at our disorderly (entropic) society through the lens of information. As an Information Theorist, he understands that life and the non-harmful functionality of all living systems depend on cognition i.e. the processing of all relevant information. Any man-made system that ignores or suppresses information is going into entropy which means disorder. Entropy can be understood as the unavailability of information. Only those systems that use all relevant information survive. This is a law of physics and biology. Information can't be separated from our reality by force. Lying, deceit by censorship is therefore not condoned by nature, without severe consequences for everyone, including the liars. The main question remains: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who guards the guards? An overlooked science is information theory. Information is not just a message, knowledge or an idea, but an actual part of our physical reality. Information is both DNA and the code. Try to ignore information when you drive your car or cross the road? This science makes it possible to understand that information is an essential component of reality and cannot be separated from it. Information builds order into all living systems and sustains them. The chance element is called entropy, the driving force of chaos, which tends to mix the un-mixable, to destroy meaning. The non-random element is information, which uses the uncertainty behind the entropy principle to generate new structures, to 'in'form i.e. give our physical reality its form. People are bound by the limitations of reality. We can't walk through a closed door or jump twenty feet high. There are limits of reality or boundaries of functionality. Sense and order, says the theory, can triumph over nonsense and chaos. Information theory suggests that order is perfectly natural. Information Theory demonstrates that lying or deceit are not tolerated by nature and cause entropy (disorder) and stress due to remorse which can't be switched off. Lying is however acceptable, but only when survival is at stake. People are not blind, but refuse to see. New, unfamiliar information has always been unwelcome and regarded as dangerous. This is the perception problem the famous physicist Fritjof Capra talks about. Nature can no longer be seen as matter and energy, but must be interpreted as matter, energy and information (adapted from the book 'Grammatical Man' by Jeremy Campbell 1982). See less