This is such a great response that I’m not even going to voice my metaphysical objections because I’m absolutely certain you already know them and perhaps even explore them yourself. Have you got any recommendations for further reading?
It depends on the direction you want to take, but there is a mathematical basis to what I'm saying, not just a philosophical one. Unfortunately I've never scared up the name of the concept, or at least not in any form I can conveniently Google for. I'm not sure there is a non-textbook version of what I'm talking about; I'd like to see it myself.
It's related to the ability to read a Lyapunov exponent as a measure of bit loss. Lyapunov exponent is easy to Google up, and if you understand that and information theory it's not a difficult leap to make, but I can't find any nice explanation for people who don't already have those things.
