[[I worked for years in IT, and created endless error correction methods,]]
Good- then you KNOW systems MUST be created intelligently then- working out all the errors and corrections in order for hte ‘species’ (or program) to remain as fit as possible- without error correction, species (and programs) can NOT thrive- but this has nothign to do with Shannon hteory- Shannon hteory is about the communication process (pipeline if you will-) It’s the pipeline between hte sender and receiver- or rather the process- or how info gets from sender to receiver- and it’s about the NEED for a process of sending and receiving- info without that process is useless/static/ of no value- just as a letter is of no value UNTIL it somehow reaches the intended receiver- sitting on the desk of the creator, it is useless- of no value- Again- you missed a VERY good htread on Shannon theory- you’ll need to ask BB or Alamo Girl for hte link- it’s quite fascinating
“...to remain as fit as possible- without error correction, species (and programs) can NOT thrive ...”
Gene repair and protein reconstruction are not “error correction” though that expression is sometimes used metaphorically.
Maintaining the integrity of digitally transmitted information (actually it is not maintained—but recreated when received) has nothing to do with biological functions, which are not digital. Shannon codes are not at all that mysterious, and there are actually more reliable ways to accomplish the same thing—the most reliable of all being triple redundancy—but it is very “expensive” in terms of hardware and bandwidth.
Information theory is another animal altogether. It has nothing to do with “intelligence” or “knowledge.” Only with the relationships between bandwidths and noise. There are analog applicatoins but it is generally digital. Ah well!
Error correction is not needed at all for many computers and programs. It is only needed where there are known transmission problems, which can be solved in other ways, also.
Hank