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On the Application of Information Theory to Regime Changes and Sustainability
Citation:
CABEZAS, H. On the Application of Information Theory to Regime Changes and Sustainability. Presented at The University of Puerto Rico, Biology Seminar, Rio Piedras, PUERTO RICO, December 09, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public
Description:
According to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, entropy must be an increasing function of time for the whole universe, system plus surroundings. This gives rise to conjectures regarding the lost of work with entropy generation in a general processes. It can be shown that under conditions under which entropy increases with time, the Fisher information becomes a decreasing function of time. This gives rise to a Fisher information analog to the traditional 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. The Fisher information, however, is a purely observational quantity that can be estimated for systems that are not well-defined and for which only partial data exists. This is important because the kinds of systems, e.g. ecosystems, geographical regions, supply chains, and complex technological assemblages, required to understand sustainability are often not well defined and rarely have complete data sets. We have, therefore, been exploring the use of Fisher information for analyzing systems for sustainability. This includes the formulation of a Sustainable Regimes Hypothesis, and the application of Fisher information to geographical areas, ecosystems, and combined social-ecological-industrial systems.