Journal of Human Thermodynamics 2012, 8(1):1‐120 Open Access Journal of Human Thermodynamics ISSN 1559-386X HumanThermodynamics.com/Journal.html Article Thermodynamics ≠ Information Theory: Science’s Greatest Sokal Affair Libb Thims Institute of Human Thermodynamics, Chicago, IL;
[email protected] Received: 26 Jun 2012; Reviewed: 14 Dec 2012 – 18 Dec 2012; Published: 19 Dec 2012 Abstract This short article is a long-overdue, seven decades—1940 to present—delayed, inter-science departmental memorandum—though not the first—that INFORMATION THEORY IS NOT THERMODYNAMICS and thermodynamics is not information theory. We repeat again: information theory—the mathematical study of the transmission of information in binary format and or the study of the probabilistic decoding of keys and cyphers in cryptograms—is not thermodynamics! This point cannot be overemphasized enough, nor restated in various ways enough. Information theory is not statistical mechanics—information theory is not statistical thermodynamics—information theory is not a branch of physics. Claude Shannon is not a thermodynamicist. Heat is not a binary digit. A telegraph operator is not a Maxwell’s demon. The statistical theory of radiography and electrical signal transmission is NOT gas theory. The equations used in communication theory have absolutely nothing to do with the equations used in thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, or statistical thermodynamics. The logarithm is not a panacea. Boltzmann was not thinking of entropy in 1894 as ‘missing information’. Concisely, the