nucleation

LIT-1149: Semantic information, autonomous agency and non-equilibrium statistical physics

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Properties4
StatusActive — read 2026-10-29 (NOTE-1370) in full, from arXiv's own copy (v3); worth reading for a definition of semantic information as the least syntactic information (initial mutual information or transfer entropy) that a coarse-graining intervention on the environment can leave while the system's viability at τ, its negative entropy, is unchanged, with semantic efficiency, content and a thermodynamic multiplier. Read it knowing that the viability function, the system–environment split, τ and the initial distribution are the analyst's choices, which the paper concedes; that negative entropy does not track a system's identity; that the only example is a five-location toy; and that Appendix B drops the minus sign of its own viability function.
Version2
Tagsinformation-theory, thermodynamics, agency
Cited as “paper” byNOTE-1370 — Kolchinsky and Wolpert — Semantic information and autonomous agency

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Kolchinsky, A. & Wolpert, D. H. (2018). Interface Focus 8(6):20180041. doi:10.1098/rsfs.2018.0041.

Read in full on 2026-10-29 (NOTE-1370).

Why this is here

A10 of the exchange of 2026-10-16, as the likeliest source of the owner’s half-remembered “useful information”. A10’s caution: the system’s continued existence must be defined first, or the test is circular (CLAIM-152).

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