Gpuccio: Functional Information Methodology

[gpuccio]

@swamidass

A new configuration would not be equally precious for telling the stories we have now. We would have different constellations, and therefore different myths about these constellations. My function is to tell this specific (specified!) stories, not any old stories you might want to come up with in place of them. So no, a new conversation would break the storytelling function.

Remember also, that some configurations (e.g. a regular grid or a repeating pattern) are useless for navigation or time-telling. Very quickly, we would get over 500 bits with a careful treatment, well into the thousands if not millions of bits.

But you are doing exactly what I cautioned about. You are defining the function as a consequence of an already observed configuration.

If the configuration were different, we woukld be telling different stories.

Are you really so confused about the meaning of FI?

The function must be defined independently You can define the function as “telling stories about the stars”. You cannot define the function as “telling storeis about the stars in this specific configuration”.

How can you not understand that this is conceptually wrong?