The Misinterpretable Evidence Conveyed by Arbitrary Codes

This essay explores the possibility of making use of Evidenc e Theory (ET) [51] in order to represent communication between and within living organisms ranging from humans to bacteria. ET, also known as "Dempster-Shafer Theo ry" or "Belief Functions Theory," is a mathematical theory of uncertain reasoning th at takes as prototypical situation a judge evaluating testimonies, or a detective ex amining cues, rather than a gambler playing dice [48] [52]. This marks a sharp differenc e with Probability Theory (PT) because, albeit fundamental constructs such as Bayes' Theorem can be obtained from the corresponding expressions of ET as special cases, g amblers know the faces of a die or the numbers on a roulette -- they assume to live in a clos ed world -- whereas judges and detectives are aware that unexpected clues and te stimonies may open up novel possibilities -- they are aware of living in an open worl d [23]. I submit that ET is more appropriate than PT to represent info rmation transmission through arbitrary codes that multiply the generation o f novelties. Furthermore, its paradigmatic situation of judges listening to testimonies is structurally similar to information communication, whereas the paradigmatic situation of gamblers playing games of chance is not [52].