The Fundamental Problem of the Science of Information
Loading...
Links to Files
Author/Creator
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2019-02-28
Type of Work
Department
Program
Citation of Original Publication
Cárdenas-García, J.F. & Ireland, T. Biosemiotics (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-019-09350-2
Rights
This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Biosemiotics. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12304-019-09350-2
Access to this item will begin on February 28, 2020
This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Biosemiotics. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12304-019-09350-2
Access to this item will begin on February 28, 2020
Abstract
The concept of information has been extensively studied and written about, yet no
consensus on a unified definition of information has to date been reached. This paper
seeks to establish the basis for a unified definition of information. We claim a
biosemiotics perspective, based on Gregory Bateson’s definition of information, provides
a footing on which to build because the frame this provides has applicability to
both the sciences and humanities.
A key issue in reaching a unified definition of information is the fundamental
problem of identifying how a human organism, in a self-referential process,
develops from a state in which its knowledge of the human-organism-in-its environment
is almost non-existent to a state in which the human organism not
only recognizes the existence of the environment but also sees itself as part of the
human-organism-in-its-environment system. This allows a human organism not
only to self-referentially engage with the environment and navigate through it, but
also to transform it in its own image and likeness. In other words, the Fundamental
Problem of the Science of Information concerns the phylogenetic development
process, as well as the ontogenetic development process of Homo sapiens sapiens
from a single cell to our current multicellular selves, all in a changing long-term
and short-term environment, respectively.