Senary logic and some old Science News

Recent discussions in jcs-online and general_theory re: Shannon information,  prompted me to read a bit  about his insights and contributions:

"Claude Elwood Shannon is considered as the founding father of electronic communications age. He is an American mathematical engineer, whose work on technical and engineering problems within the communications industry, laying the groundwork for both the computer industry and telecommunications. After Shannon noticed the similarity between Boolean algebra and the telephone switching circuits, he applied Boolean algebra to electrical systems at the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) in 1940. Later he joined the staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1942. While working at Bell Laboratories, he formulated a theory explaining the communication of information and worked on the problem of most efficiently transmitting information. The mathematical theory of communication was the climax of Shannon's mathematical and engineering investigations. The concept of entropy was an important feature of Shannon's theory, which he demonstrated to be equivalent to a shortage in the information content (a degree of uncertainty) in a message."  http://www.nyu.edu/pages/linguistics/courses/v610003/shan.html

In thinking (for the first time) about his notion of entropy being a shortage in the information content (a degree of uncertainty) in a message, and also about his focus being on binary digits, having the "two" truth values, I had an epiphany, of a sort, actually a couple, where (1) in thinking, yes, we are always faced with a shortage, or what feels more like a hole which we are always trying to fill, or arrange into a flow channel, where we have a question and seek an answer (or need to create an invention).  And (2),  binary digits  seem to also just have ONE "truth" value: true; the other being false.  And (3), uncertainty (or Shannon's type of entropy as a measure of the uncertainty) is deeply related to yes-no and also maybe.  That is,  Shannon (among many other things) noticed that in the developing Boolean perspective during the 1940's, there is, for instance, yes and no, but then ALSO, lots of maybe, or uncertainty, or adding the technical jargon-term: entropy as a measure of the amount of maybe.

Thinking about two-state "binary digits", I finally got around to wonder about and look up what a system of six states is called. After a couple of minutes my friend Google proposed  what I was looking for.   The term which apparently fills that ho;e seems to be senary - related to base 6 numbering. Will wonders ever cease? 

Base six type of counting  can be protein-folding in the following way. Starting with both fists closed for zero, open the five digits on the right hand counting 1-2-3-4-5, and then opening the index finger on the left hand while closing the right hand for 6 (counting sixes on the left hand). Then counting through the right five digits up to 11, then having the two open fingers on the left hand (right closed) for 12. Etc., up to 35.


Google also lists: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111201125402.htm
New switch could improve electronics - This Aint News
thisaintnews.com/view/link/.../New-switch-could-improve-electronics‎
What can we do with 6 logical states? I thought 2 was enough 1 & 0 if I am not mistaken (very unlikely). [/quote] It means we could implement senary computers.

from Dec. 2, 2011, where ".The prototype was demonstrated using an Sc3N@C80 molecule sandwiched between two electrodes consisting of an atomically flat copper oxide substrate and an atomically sharp tungsten tip. By applying a voltage pulse, the equilateral triangle-shaped Sc3N could be rotated predictably among six logic states."


According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senary  " Senary may be considered useful in the study of prime numbers since all primes other than 2 and 3, when expressed in base-six, have 1 or 5 as the final digit. Writing out the prime numbers in base-six (and using the subscript 6 to denote that these are senary numbers), the first few primes are

    2_6,3_6,5_6,11_6,15_6,21_6,25_6,31_6,35_6,45_6,51_6,
    101_6,105_6,111_6,115_6,125_6,... "

Then if we return to the ideas of the six orientational states that  an n2s2 magnetic tetrahedron (or similarly, a ++-- charged tetrahedral-like water molecule) can have within and enfolding field, where we might consider the six states as yes, probably yes, maybe no, probably no and no, then, in this senary logic system, we can begin to form the impression that Shannon's entropy or uncertainty is, or can be, actually  more like additional, previously unrecognized so-called additional truth values, or additional states. 

Alternatively, such a picture begins to handle the entropy or uncertainty in a different many which seems much more in line with living organic communication systems which sort of have to manage uncertainty in a sustainable manner, rather directly. 

It's a rough image at this point, but perhaps some readers can catch a glimpse of things to come and/or  how the senary system that is running innately within our respiration/energy supply system may also be capable of accommodating  the Shannon and natural entropy or uncertainty rather directly.  


Again, I suggest it is still more helpful to consider the strings and stacks of the 6-states or orientations of forming watering molecules as vector-like attractions or repulsions.   Non-verbally, or pre-verbally, then form due to vibrations in the surroundings and unfurl/interact via influencing in protein-folding (etc.,) in the effort to SUSTAIN/minimize system energy flow. 

There is an analogy, of a sort, between binary digits mapping with communications switching networks and with the binary logic/boolean algebra and some parts of physics, and, in the more robust, creative  instances, the senary digits and logic within our respirational systems, which are also geared directly in with basic, also quite uncertain quantum-gravitational physics as we bobble along here  in the enfolding local varying mass density and solar fusion flux.


Think about it.

Best regards,
Ralph Frost

FYI,  666 in base 6 is 111.

With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3