In the Beginning was Information

Q10: Natural languages are changing dynamically all the time.Doesn’t this contradict your theorem that coding conventionsshould be conserved?A10: New words arise continuously, like skate boards, rollerblades,wind surfing, paragliding, etc., but all of them meet a very specificneed and perform a real function. There is consensus about theirmeaning, and nobody would confuse a rollerblade with a switchbladeor paragliding with paramedical. If random strings of lettersare written on a blackboard, nobody would be able to do anythingwith them. In this case there will be no agreed-on convention.Q11: Can the randomness of a result be proved?A11: In a work of Gregory J. Chaitin (Argentina) [C2] he showedthat there is no algorithm for determining whether a sequence ofsymbols is random or not. One must be informed of the fact if arandom process has been involved (e. g. that a sequence was producedby a random number generator).Q12: The criteria for information seem to be mostly subjective.A12: Subjective aspects play a significant role when the senderdecides which type of code he wants to use. He decides whether towrite a letter or make a phone call. And even the way the messageis transmitted is coloured by his personality and by the circumstances.The transmission may be joyful, stupid, agitated, boring,or may have a special emphasis.Q13: Does the synergy of the German physicist Hermann Hakennot mean that order can arise from disorder, and that evolutioncould thus be possible?A13: Haken always quotes the same examples for the origin ofordered structures. I once asked him after a lecture whether he couldstore these ordered structures; his answer was negative. A code isrequired for storing an achieved state. But no codes are found inphysical systems and every structure collapses when the causinggradient is suspended (e. g. a specific temperature difference).Q14: What is your opinion of the Miller experiments whichappear in school texts as “proof” of chemical evolution?A14: No protein has ever been synthesised in such an experiment;they refer to proteinoids and not proteins as such. But even if theysucceed in obtaining a true protein with a long amino acid chain126