noise is what gives meaning to signal
Apropos the article in nature (link provided when I shouldn’t be somewhere else right now), injecting noise into a biological system can induce episodic behaviour. Furthermore, individuals are better able to percieve an audio message at low volume when a certain amount of static is added into the picture.
Noise has also become the signature of veracity: if you see a man shot in HDTV, you’re likely to consider it staged; whereas if it’s a grainy “surveillance video” I, at least, tend to take it as read that it’s an actual replay.
I wonder if this isn’t pointing towards the notion that noise is itself the signal inducer. More when I’m not at risk of standing up a bunch of sixth graders.