Uncertainty and the Communication of Time

TL;DR

This paper explores the philosophical and scientific concepts of time and uncertainty, emphasizing the diversity of temporal frameworks in communication systems and proposing an evolutionary perspective to unify theories of communication.

Contribution

It introduces an evolutionary perspective to the mathematical theory of communication, highlighting the contingency of time and communication systems across different contexts.

Findings

Different systems use different clocks and temporal frameworks.

Communication is contingent in space and time, involving substances, forces, and actions.

An evolutionary perspective can unify various communication theories.

Abstract

Prigogine and Stengers (1988) have pointed to the centrality of the concepts of "time and eternity" for the cosmology contained in Newtonian physics, but they have not addressed this issue beyond the domain of physics. The construction of "time" in the cosmology dates back to debates among Huygens, Newton, and Leibniz. The deconstruction of this cosmology in terms of the philosophical questions of the 17th century suggests an uncertainty in the time dimension. While order has been conceived as an "harmonie pr\'e\'etablie", it is considered as emergent from an evolutionary perspective. In a "chaology", one should fully appreciate that different systems may use different clocks. Communication systems can be considered as contingent in space and time: substances contain force or action, and they communicate not only in (observable) extension, but also over time. While each communication system can be considered as a system of reference for a special theory of communication, the addition of an evolutionary perspective to the mathematical theory of communication opens up the possibility of a general theory of communication.