Home

From fluctuations to atoms: Hierarchical order in the universe is tied up with the breaking of symmetries. The origin of universes and neutral atoms are no exception, although the view that modern science takes of these specific processes is not so practical in the here and now. Ancient ideas e.g. about "the turtle on whose back the universe rests" may at the very least have prompted folks to "be kind to turtles". Given a universe filled with neutral atoms, on the other hand, this idea points the way to all kinds of cool possibilities downstream. 

Welcome to our mobile-ready google-site about correlation-first informatics:

a configurational (non-dynamical) extension of entropy-first thermodynamics 

to a much wider range of un-equilibrated complex systems.

Preliminaries: Science may be seen as the cyclical evolution of practical knowledge, in a process which generates digitally-replicable molecular (e.g. genetic) codes and idea (e.g. cultural) codes. The idea that these codes minimize our surprisal in bits (following #choices = 2#bits) when we get new data is one spinoff of this scientific "observe → choose/apply models → predict → react → observe..." cycle.

From neutral atoms to us: The story of layered-complexity built on broken-symmetries driven by thermodynamic availability (e.g. from solar photons) continues from neutral atoms in our universe to the formation of galaxies, stars, planets, biogeochemical cycles on planetary surfaces, cell membranes, tissue boundaries, metazoan skins, all the way up to the physical development of molecular (genetic) and idea (cultural) code-pool edges. The last two "layers" here on earth each invented "digital" storage of information, so as to benefit from its replicability! Observations of stars and other planetary systems, however, suggests that the conditions that make life possible (especially for multicelled organisms like plants and animals) are usually short, on the geologic time scale. We may therefore want to work together to make the most of our rare opportunity.    

Research question: What are some advantages of the entropy-first approach to thermal physics now widely adopted for senior undergraduate texts, and (even more powerfully) of a correlations-first approach to the evolution of complex systems, for scientific inquiries starting with introductory courses in physics, chemistry, engineering, and biology? Like the second law of thermodynamics itself, the approach starts with the assumption that "what we know about the state of system from which we are isolated" is unlikely to increase over time.

Results: Entropy-first approaches to thermal physics provide immediate insight into the model assumptions that underlie the ideal gas law, equipartition, and the law of mass action, not to mention the information-theory roots of available-work as well as the 0th, 1st, 2nd & 3rd laws of thermodynamics. For sub-systems from which you are isolated, if you exchange "entropy increase" for "correlations decrease" over time, then quantitative guidelines for the analysis of complexity's evolution in wide-ranging fields (e.g. model-selection and parameter-estimation, data compression & error correction, clade & network analysis, and even community-health monitoring) become available as well. 

Note: The numbered sections under Navigation at left represent sections of a draft paper, which may be found as a periodically-updated e-print here, and in continuously-updated working draft form here.