  In traditional thermodynamical and statistical-mechanical approaches one has
(some) detailed knowledge of the principles governing the microdynamics of a
system. However in many instances we may not have a Hamiltonian or good
information about the degrees of freedom (or, in a roughly complementary sense,
the redundancies in observed data), but on the other hand we have access to a
preponderance of raw data. The development outlined here is an attempt to apply
the principles of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics generically to such
cases.
