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Bradfordly1
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Is digital information that travels across the internet massless? If we were to take out the cables(and maybe the electrons)from the equation, is the digital information taking up physical space?
jedishrfu said:Information is encoded in the state of some physical object, it doesn't have any weight. It's like using a stick to write in the sand, the information is encoded in the troughs and hills of the sand.
Odd concept. You can count objects and you can measure objects (like your fingers). You can also use objects to convey information (sign language, used to communicate with the deaf). Your fingers do not increase in mass when using sign language...Bradfordly1 said:So digital information is classified as a non-physical object? And does a hard drive then almost lose mass when you put a program on it then?
But do they have to be "different" energy states? If you store information in a capacitor, you can choose a capacitor voltage of >0.1V as "1" and a capacitor voltage of <-0.1V as 0. Or (fast-forward 20 years or so) store information in the electron spin state? As for data communication, we always try to code information in such a way that the mean voltage/current/lightflux across a symbol is 0 (see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_code and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8b/10b_encoding).DrClaude said:It depends on whether 0s and 1s weigh the same . If 1s correspond to a higher energy state, then the more ones you have, the heavier the memory storing it. If you have an optical fiber, if no signal is going through it, then it is lighter than when light (and hence information) travels through it.
No. That's why I started the sentence with "It depends." You can easily imagine systems where 0s and 1s correspond to the same energy, such that information itself has no weight.Svein said:But do they have to be "different" energy states?
The entropy is independent of the choice of how 0s and 1s are represented, in particular exchanging the state representing 0 for the state representing 1 (i.e., flipping all bits) doesn't change the entropy of the memory.jedishrfu said:The notion is equating information with the entropy of the system and the information has mass by virtue of the entropy in describing the state of the system.
I am troubled by this definition since for digital information, we make an arbitrary choice as to what state constitutes a ONE and what state constitutes a ZERO. Consequently, the same information would have differing masses depending the choice of states and the medium it's stored on.
Digital information refers to any data or content that is stored, transmitted, or accessed in a digital format. This includes text, images, videos, audio files, and any other type of information that can be represented by binary code (0s and 1s).
Digital information offers many benefits, including ease of storage, access, and transmission. It also allows for faster and more efficient processing, sharing, and analysis of data. Additionally, digital information can be easily replicated and backed up, reducing the risk of data loss.
One of the main risks of digital information is the threat of cyber attacks, which can compromise the security and privacy of sensitive data. Digital information is also vulnerable to technical issues such as hardware failures and software malfunctions, which can result in data loss or corruption.
Digital information is typically stored on electronic devices such as computers, external hard drives, and cloud servers. It is stored in the form of binary code, which is a series of 0s and 1s that represent different types of data.
Digital information can be transmitted through various means, including the internet, satellite communication, and wireless networks. It is sent in the form of digital signals that can be decoded and interpreted by receiving devices, such as computers or smartphones.