Cárdenas-García, J.F. and Ireland, T. orcid.org/0000-0002-7845-8834 (2019) The fundamental problem of the science of information. Biosemiotics, 12 (2). pp. 213-244. ISSN 1875-1342
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Springer Nature B.V. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Biosemiotics. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Science of information; Human-organism-in-its-environment; Gregory Bateson; Distributed cognition; Ecology; Communication; Shannon information; Distilled information; Bateson information |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Architecture (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 08 Jun 2022 16:11 |
Last Modified: | 08 Jun 2022 16:11 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s12304-019-09350-2 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:187462 |