February 2013
A Drop in the Digital Ocean | March 2013 | January 2013

Gems from John R. Pierce

02/08/13 07:39 PM Filed in: Books | Science | Art | Natural Theology
infotheory
"I have read a good deal more about information theory and psychology that I can or care to remember. Much of it was a mere association of new terms with old and vague ideas. Presumably the hope was that a stirring in of new terms would clarify the old ideas by a sort of sympathetic magic." [pg. 229]

"Mathematically, white Gaussian noise, which contains all frequencies equally, is the epitome of the various and unexpected. It is the least predictable, the most original of sounds. To a human being, however, all white Gaussian noise sounds alike. It's subtleties are hidden from him, and he says that it is dull and monotonous. If a human being finds monotonous that which is mathematically most various and unpredictable, what does he find fresh and interesting? To be able to call a thing new, he must be able to distinguish it from that which is old. To be distinguishable, sounds must be to a degree familiar. … We can be surprised repeatedly only by contrast with that which is familiar, not by chaos." [pg. 251, 267]


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Firsts...

02/08/13 07:32 PM Filed in: Life
Becky is going through our old photos selecting pictures of our oldest for his upcoming wedding in April. This is David at, we think, 3 or 4 months old with my first dog Procyon. Pro would have been around 5 and would be with us for another 9 years. This picture is not quite 30 years old. Good times.

Firsts


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