David LinckInformation has often been compared to water in that it wants to be free, and wants to flow, and mankind can set up dams, breakwater, and even put in pipes, but the water wants to leak out, and flow downhill. In that regard information is quite similar, and Chris Anderson had made a note of this at a recent TED Conference Talk, as he has been talking about it for years and written about it in his books.
Since this is true, and the analogy does hold water, I’d like to spend a few minutes and talk to you about this, and take the concept to a higher level. Today, when we look at the two-dimensional mind maps and the actual 3-D neural networks of the brain, they do appear to look similar to erosion patterns, the veins of trees, and the runoff deltas as they reach the ocean. Years ago, there was a very interesting research paper titled;
“Model trees as an alternative to neural networks in rainfall-runoff modeling,” by Dimitri P. Solomatine which appeared in Hydrological Sciences-Journal-des Sciences Hydrologiques, 48(3) June 2003. The abstract stated; “This paper investigates the comparative performance of two data-driven modeling techniques, namely, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and model trees (MTs), in rainfall-runoff transformation. The applicability of these techniques is studied by predicting runoff one, three and six hours ahead for a European catchment.”
Okay so, perhaps I am not the only one thinking here, and this isn’t an original thought, nevertheless when we combine the data, and think of water and information in the same light, we see there is a natural order to thing, that is to say the flow. Over the years I’ve put together a number of essays called “The Flow of All We Know,” and called it a series. I discuss the flow of money, water, thought, resources, energy, and several other things, after reasoning my way through that laborious exercise, everything makes perfect sense in how things flow in our world.
When we look at complex systems and how trees deliver nutrients, or how the human body delivers blood, or even how information flows in the neural network pathways, there seems to be a common theme. This shouldn’t be too surprising, it is how nature works, and there is a reason why. When it comes to organic matter evolution provides for efficiency and abundance on as little energy as possible. As things flow, they follow and adhere to these patterns in nature.
Apparently, it has always been this way. The information in our computer systems is highly controlled, but if we wish it to be more efficient we really should be thinking here, especially if we wish to create Thinking Machines that can outperform the human mind. Indeed I would like to leave you with that thought and ask that you please consider all this and think on it.
