I love the idea of entropy applied to all kinds of concepts. Today I was thinking about information and how it spreads. Information can have entropy applied to how it moves.
When you share a piece of information with someone (for example we give market information to a client) that information may now stop with that person or they may share it out. Viral information has a high probability of being shared again and again. But by the very uncontrolled nature of information there is no way of knowing definitively where and how it will spread.
One of the interesting things about information is how it can easily be transformed. Emails become phone calls. Blog posts become discussions in comment sections. Private conversations turn into rumors which turn into YouTube videos detailing conspiracy theories.
Additionally, the original root of the information you are sharing is often unpredictable. Where information begins can often circle back around and cause resets, confusion, clarifications or changes to the current on-going information spread.
One thing is true of all information – it spreads and is shared. It may be broken down, refocused, repackaged and then spread but somehow all information spreads. Even if that information is simply received from one person to another it may simply influence future interactions between those two people. Unspoken interactions are also information conveyance moments.
I don’t know why I thought to share but it was a fascinating thought process that got stuck in my head earlier and I thought it was interesting. Hopefully you do as well. And if not, it’s still information….
1 thought on “Information is not by nature a scarce resource. Natural processes cause it to grow.”