Physical Meaning of Data

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Physical Meaning of Data is a Platonic/Theory of forms idea that could be related to physical Church–Turing thesis. This idea also has triggered significant debates between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Alan Turing. The phrase, Data has physical meaning is particularly applicable to the architecture of computers[1][2] or network of computers. The speed of how data can be transferred and the way how data are being represented determine the boundary of how data could affect the physical world. The intentional act to organize information processing tools, either by human organization or by machine architecture, is considered to be a way to assign physical meaning to data. For example, complex numbers are only required for quantum physics[3]. That implies imaginary numbers are only required to represent the physical meaning of data in quantum physical world. One should also listen to the original words of Carver Mead[4].

Relevant to art

Leonard Shlain wrote books on this subject:Art & Physics[5], and The Alphabet versus the Goddess[6].

Relevant lectures

Leonard Susskind in his Oppenheimer Lecture[7] gives a good story about how to assign physical meaning of data that cut across Quantum Mechanics (microscopic phenomenon) and gravity(macroscopic phenomenon).

Relevance to Accounting

Measurement and objectivity in accounting

Historical Document

The first and foremost important document that stated this idea can be associated to Moore's Law[8]. This document is important because it links across socio-technical world, and explicitly stated that the physical size of data has economical and social implications. The other document that also talked about the physical meaning of data is Paul Dirac's book on The Principles of Quantum Mechanics[9].

Hardware Changes

This video[10] explains how to exploit the physical properties of data.

References

  1. Hennessy, John; Patterson, David (September 30, 2011). Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach (5th ed.). local page: Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-8178672663. 
  2. Patterson, David; Hennessy, John (October 10, 2013). Computer Organization and Design MIPS Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface (MIPS Edition ed.). local page: Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-0124077263. 
  3. Hossenfelder, Sabine (Nov 21, 2021). Do Complex Numbers Exist?. local page: Sabine Hossenfelder. 
  4. Mead, Carver (Jun 3, 2015). Insight 1:Logic in Physical Form. local page: caltech. 
  5. Shlain, Leonard (1991). Art & Physics:Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light. local page: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0688097529. 
  6. Shlain, Leonard (1999). The Alphabet versus the Goddess:The Conflict Between Word and Image. local page: Penguin. ISBN 9781101573914. 
  7. Susskind, Leonard (May 12, 2022). THE 2022 OPPENHEIMER LECTURE: THE QUANTUM ORIGINS OF GRAVITY. local page: UC Berkeley Events. 
  8. Gordon, Moore E. (Apr 19, 1965). Cramming more components onto integrated circuits (PDF). local page: Electronics Magazine. 
  9. Dirac, Paul (2019). The Principles of Quantum Mechanics. local page: BN Publishing. ISBN 9781562999742. 
  10. Gallego, Alex (Oct 25, 2021). How Vectorized built a Distributed Data Streaming Architecture for Modern Hardware with Seastar. local page: ScyllaDB. 

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