Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2508.00525

Towards a Measure Theory of Semantic Information

George M. Coghill
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

A classic account of the quantification of semantic information is that of Bar-Hiller and Carnap. Their account proposes an inverse relation between the informativeness of a statement and its probability. However, their approach assigns the maximum informativeness to a contradiction: which Floridi refers to as the Bar-Hillel-Carnap paradox. He developed a novel theory founded on a distance metric and parabolic relation, designed to remove this paradox. Unfortunately is approach does not succeed in that aim. In this paper I critique Floridi's theory of strongly semantic information on its own terms and show where it succeeds and fails. I then present a new approach based on the unit circle (a relation that has been the basis of theories from basic trigonometry to quantum theory). This is used, by analogy with von Neumann's quantum probability to construct a measure space for informativeness that meets all the requirements stipulated by Floridi and removes the paradox. In addition, while contradictions and tautologies have zero informativeness, it is found that messages which are contradictory to each other are equally informative. The utility of this is explained by means of an example.

Explore related subjects

cs.ITcs.AImath.IT

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

George M. Coghill. 2025-08-01. Towards a Measure Theory of Semantic Information. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00525

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Bistatic Target Detection by Exploiting Both Deterministic Pilots and Unknown Random Data Payloads

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) plays a crucial role in 6G, to enable innovative applications such as drone surveillance, urban air mobility, and low-altitude logistics. However, the hybrid ISAC signal, which comprises deterministic pilot and random data payload components, poses challenges for target detection due to two reasons: 1) these two components cause coupled shifts in both the mean and variance of the received signal, and 2) the random data payloads are typically unknown to the sensing receiver in the bistatic setting. Unfortunately, these challenges could not be tackled by existing target detection algorithms. In this paper, a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT)-based detector is derived, by leveraging the known deterministic pilots and the statistical characteristics of the unknown random data payloads. Due to the analytical intractability of exact performance characterization, we perform an asymptotic analysis for the false alarm probability and detection probability of the proposed detector. The results highlight a critical trade-off: both deterministic and random components improve detection reliability, but the latter also brings statistical uncertainty that hinders detection performance. Simulations validate the theoretical findings and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed detector, which highlights the necessity of designing a dedicated detector to fully exploited the signaling resources assigned to random data payloads.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2026

On Unbiased Parameter Estimation and Signal Reconstruction

In this paper, we extend the theory of depth-unbiased source localization to unbiased parameter estimation and signal reconstruction for an arbitrary number of non-zero parameters. The topic touches on exact reconstructibility, most commonly studied in compressed sensing and multisource estimation across various imaging problems. The theoretical results derive upper bounds on the number of recoverable parameters in the noiseless case, and define a probability measure to assess the likelihood of recovering all non-zero parameters with correct magnitude order. The work provides a mathematical explanation of the open question regarding the noise robustness of standardized and unbiased methods. The paper also reveals a trade-off between the number of sensors and the signal-to-noise ratio. Numerical experiments demonstrate the theoretical findings.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2026

Minimum enclosing Bregman balls made easy

In this work, we revisit the problem of computing minimum enclosing Bregman balls (Bregman MEBs) of finite sets of parameters. First, we show that Bregman MEBs are equivalent to MEBs of corresponding weighted point sets with respect to the power distance. We then report an efficient Frank--Wolfe $(1+ε)$-approximation algorithm for computing power MEBs, for any $ε>0$. This power MEB approximation algorithm coincides with the Bregman MEB approximation algorithm of Nock and Nielsen (2005) when expressed in the dual gradient space. Finally, we show that the Bregman potential lifting transforms used to construct Bregman Voronoi diagrams can be reinterpreted as the classical paraboloid lifting transform applied to corresponding weighted point sets. In particular, Bregman MEB circumcenters lie on the farthest Bregman Voronoi diagrams or equivalently on the corresponding farthest power diagrams.

cs.IT↗