#information theory

[cauchyfeelings]

Y’all ever keep old scratchwork/notes and just reminisce. Kinda don’t want to throw it away but also am I just a hoarder?

[kneadingmaths]

How do you reliably convey information when your pathway has noise in it (be it electrical... or acoustic)? Error-correcting codes provide an answer. (Sidenote: this illustrates a linear error-correcting code in particular.)

[catherine-clover]

Collective intelligence emerges when a group's structure rewards being correct. Hypotheses will be put forth and tested against critical thinking until the best one is found. An individual member will then say the smartest thing anyone in the group thought of, and sometimes something smarter than anyone in the group could've come up with on their own.

Collective stupidity emerges when a group's structure rewards being aligned. Angering distortions will be the first thing anyone says and then that's that. An individual member will then say the stupidest thing anyone in the group thought of, and sometimes something stupider than anyone in the group could've come up with on their own.

[time-consciousness-jjsimon]

Thought Experiment # 14

Imagine you could observe a single quantum event without gaining any information about it.

Would you still call it an observation?

Or is information part of what makes observation meaningful in the first place?

[garadinervi]

Décio Pignatari, (1968), Informação, linguagem, comunicação, Editora Cultrix, São Paulo, 1981 (Monoskop here) [Touché Livros, Curitiba]

[ladyfingerpress]

The first 120 issues: Selections

Our typewriter is still broken. So let's look back for a moment.

Here are some highlights, things we're proud of, and awards we're awarding ourselves from our first 120 issues. All written in 2025, the living hell year! Yes, things are hard. Consider supporting us. We just got Venmo.

Check out issue number...

4 - How to Talk to Your Daughter About Etruscan Antiquities Forgery. Our best-read issue, available in second edition this winter from a minor publisher! All other issues available directly from Ladyfinger Press.

10 - A "truly insightful" introduction to major current concepts in neuroscience.

15 - We solve the infamous most difficult crux in the bible... and find a goddess.

17 - Shocking and primer go together here. Reintroducing Dionysian Jesus.

33 - What is masculinity but a motion of avoidance?

52 - We discover the really androgynous Jesus in the earliest art.

53 - We solve the paradox of the heap.

59 - We invent the objective intelligence test.

60 - We have a strong point of view on cassette futurism. Our second best-read issue, thanks to @wilwheaton's reblog! Is that a celebrity endorsement?? 

62 - Our first attack on teleology, endemic in hard science.

68 - Our major discovery in network theory: Pulse makes loops.

69 - Fake! We debunk a new ancient inscription.

70 - We define autism as a pruning disorder. But why just us?!

76 - We un-debunk one of the biggest urban myths ever. 

82 - Our #1 issue on autism explains the real problem in neurotypical communication.

87 - Years' investigation into a synagogue zodiac mosaic mystery.

89 - How puppy play could end the economy. Go for it, girls.

90 - The scientific community needs a general theory of information. Hiii!!

94 - How thought makes brain. Keywords: attractor dynamics, preferential attachment.

96 - The Eunelos Inscription? Nobody's written about that in a hundred years!

99 - The development of the alphabet is an underappreciated and mistreated topic. We correct errors on Q, R, S, the other S, and W. 

104 - Fuck Chomksy. 

107 - The stunning significance of conservation laws in any system. 

111 - The shape of the autistic brain.

112 - Heartbreak on the spectrum.

Art_001 - We peed on this issue.

117 - Major updates to the gay agenda. 

118 - The tetragrammaton isn't. 

Contact the editor at

morganstern.33 on Signal

[email protected]

And you can probably guess our username and subreddit name at r/

[thursdayisbetterthanfriday]

The question many have asked through the ages: Can you store an image in a bird? It turns out you can, using the wonderful world of acoustics! A fantastic look into the world of bird calls, audio transmission, and information storage!