Information and Meaning

Frontmatter

1. Introduction

Abstract

The present work is the third in a series designed to clarify the issues relating to the concept of information. The ultimate aim of these travails is to help develop a science of information. The first book, Information and the Internal Structure of the Universe, defined information in a manner parallel to the definitions which apply to energy: information, like energy, is conceived of as a basic property of the universe; and like energy, which is traditionally defined operationally as possessing the capacity to perform work, so information is defined operationally as possessing the capacity to organize a system.

Tom Stonier

2. The Nature of Information

Abstract

Information is one of those terms which everybody thinks they understand, but the more closely we scrutinize the idea, the more elusive it becomes. A dictionary may define ‘information’ in terms of ‘facts’, ‘knowledge’, or ‘experience’, but then defines these terms by referring them to each other, or back to information. It is clear that, although we all have an intuitive understanding of the term ‘information’, our understanding is not sufficient to allow us create, for example, a theory of information which would allow us to explain manifestations such as meaning, knowledge, insight, or wisdom. Nor, at the other end, when we are dealing with the smallest units of information — bits of data — do we have a satisfactory theory which can explain how these bits interact to create comprehensible language.

Tom Stonier

3. The Diversity of Information Processing

Abstract

The previous chapter should make it clear that in order to understand the evolution of the universe one must look to its base root: the evolution of information-processing systems. Looking at this evolution, it would come as no surprise that, after several thousand million years, many forms of information-processing systems (IPSs; the acronym was first used by Haefner (1988)) have emerged on this planet. This chapter will explore various IPSs to illustrate how advanced information systems have evolved different mechanisms to transmit information as messages, and to store such information in quite different and distinct forms.

Tom Stonier

4. The Spectrum of Intelligence

Abstract

In order for our discussion to proceed to the phenomenon of meaning we must first digress and examine the phenomenon of intelligence. It is hoped that the previous chapters have established in the mind of the reader that information is a basic, structural property of the universe and that information-processing systems are ubiquitous. Information-processing systems may manifest the property of intelligence, a property which is a function of the sophistication of the information-processing system. In general, the higher the level of intelligence, the more evolved the system and the greater its sophistication.

Tom Stonier

5. Proto-Intelligence

Abstract

If the phenomenon of intelligence is to be viewed as a spectrum of phenomena, what is the underlying mechanism which created such a phenomenon in the first place? What lies at the base of the phenomenon of intelligence? All living systems, including the subsystems of advanced biosystems, exhibit some level of intelligence as defined in the present work. The question then must be asked: may inorganic, non-living systems exhibit intelligence?

Tom Stonier

6. The Origins of Bio-Intelligence

Abstract

The origin and evolution of living organisms on this planet — that is, the phenomenon of life — represents the best example of the origin and early evolution of the phenomenon of true intelligence. Until recently it represented the only example. This has changed with the advent of machine and electronic intelligence — a matter to be discussed in the next chapter. In this chapter we will speculate about how pre-biotic systems might have evolved into true living forms, that is, how bio-intelligence originated.

Tom Stonier

7. Machine and Electronic Intelligence

Abstract

In Chapter 3 we alluded to both the flyball governor on a steam engine and to the thermostat in a house as examples of mechanical information-processing systems. Here we wish to examine another transition, from information-processing systems that are unintelligent, or which exhibit mere proto-intelligence, to those which might be considered intelligent.

Tom Stonier

8. The Physical Origin of Meaning

Abstract

Imagine an affluent home in which the lady of the house has engaged a cleaning service to clean the house. The cleaning service has sent a super-visor and several labourers to carry out this task. The labourers are immigrants from a country whose cultural patterns are substantially different from the Western culture dominating the home.

Tom Stonier

9. The Origins of Human Speech

Abstract

Human speech as we know it emerged only after a complex evolutionary process. Philip Lieberman (1988), Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences at Brown University, has reviewed the incremental mutual stimulation and integration of brain development and vocal anatomy which occurred during the past several hundred thousand years, and which must have preceded the full flowering of human speech.

Tom Stonier

10. The Internal Information Environment

Abstract

When not ingesting, digesting or excreting, what an infant spends most of its time doing is tooling up its brain. What it is attempting to create is a useful internal information environment. Such an internal information environment becomes useful when it has created an accurate mental ‘map’ of the external world — a map which allows the infant to interact successfully with all aspects of its environment and manipulate it to its own advantage.

Tom Stonier

11. The Semantic Metabolism

Abstract

The idea of semantic metabolism is this: when there is an information input into the human brain, such as a visual observation or an auditory message, the information is metabolized by the brain the way a molecule of glucose or an amino acid is metabolized by the cell, or the way a hormonal message entering the cell is cycled throughout the various cellular systems. Since the cell itself is an immensely complex information-processing system, it could serve as a useful model for the information processing carried out by the brain.

Tom Stonier

12. Review and Further Discussion About Consciousness

Abstract

Information which acquires new meaning for us can be likened to the flowering of a beautiful tree in spring. When we start to understand a foreign language, or to understand the meaning of a poem, the achievement of making previous information acquire a new or deeper meaning — the achievement of obtaining an insight — can be so profound and so joyous an event that we are left to wonder about the process which led us to such a state of grace.

Tom Stonier

13. How Neurons Create Thought

Abstract

The ‘hard problem’, however, remains. How do billions of neurons firing in synchrony create consciousness? How does a physical entity, the brain, create an entity as abstract as the mind? How do neurons produce thought?

Tom Stonier

Backmatter