This is an examination of the central argurnents of a number of papers, which attempt to derive the canonical distribution of energy (due to Gibbs) from a principle of maximization of Shannon's information. We stress that there are rnany other concepts of information, so that the idea of information maximization is as ambiguous as the other parts of the theory of inductive behavior. Besides, we stress that the 'information" approach does not allow one to dispense with a postulate equivalent to the second principle of phenomenological thermodynamics.
By: Benoit Mandelbrot
Published in: NC107 in 1962
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