Thematic Set: Creativity and innovation in complex informative systems: applications in geosciences
As scientists, our approach to a scientific problem is to keep a clear separation between the observing subject and the observed object. In complex domains, it is better to consider the whole informative system whereby the physical system is linked with the processes of human cognition. Significances emerge when the level of data integration is sufficiently deep to create stable cognitive conditions from the chaos of the informative flux entering the system. A semantic system produces coherent significances from sparse information as a thermodynamic machine produces mechanical work from absorbed heat. A key role is played by the human filter, continuously acting on sparse and clustered information. The human filter controls the system through the parameter of semantic efficiency, which is the ability to transform information from a state of disorder (high entropy) towards a state of order. In modern geophysics semantic efficiency corresponds mainly to the capability of integrating different types of datasets. When an entropy barrier is surmounted, then a change of semantic phase can occur, corresponding to a creative solution, an innovation, or a paradigm shift.