Special Session “Information in Natural Sciences”

The Special Session “Information in Natural Sciences” of the conference “Theoretical and Foundational Problems in Information Studies” (TFP) at the 2021 IS4SI Summit focused on information in Natural Sciences. Seven authors contributed extended abstracts based on their results, which are introduced in brief in this overview article. The topics presented for TFP session 3 have spanned a rather wide range of contributions, including discussions on the concept of quantitative information applied in Natural Sciences (NS), the dynamics of physical information in NS, and information epistemology and knowledge on neuronal information processing, which help in understanding the effects of information in human cultural and political decision making

An Evolutionary View on Function-Based Stability

How can things become stable? This is a difficult question to answer, but we should nevertheless try, because of the answer’s importance for life, for us

Nonlinearities and Interference—Their Importance for the Study of Information

Mixing and interference are respectively the nonlinear and the linear part of combining wave frequencies and it is proposed here that they, together with other processes of wave dynamics, should be considered a lot more in the study of information. From a perspective of physical information—and it is proposed here that basic information is physical—nonlinear mixing processes are important since they first allow the generation of novelty (new frequencies). Second, mixing as in modulation and heterodyning is interesting in that it gives a hint on how similarity and relatedness are represented in wave dynamics. Third, mixing and other processes enabled by nonlinear properties of wave carrying media in balance with the natural dispersive properties of waves can lead to the emergence of solitary waves and localized structures, both of which are genuine wave objects with particle-like properties and interesting behavior, interacting with the matter of their medium and possibly each other. The strongly technical language of the field is translated to arrive at a description as pictorial as the current state of trusted experimental observations allows, based on a thorough literature research

On the Explicit Function of Life within a Physical Universe

To describe the meaning of functionality in a universe before life evolved, existing etiological and systemic accounts of function are evaluated. Since the theory of function is only applicable in context with living beings and artifacts used by living beings and therefore cannot predict how a prebiotic form of functionality could evolve, a maintenance account for functionality is proposed. This account ascribes functionality to a structurally disposed property that increases the probability of maintenance or recurrence of the property in the surrounding selective environment. With the help of the maintenance account and a concept of physical information comprising kinetic and structural types of information, possible evolutionary processes preceding the evolution of life are explored. As important mechanisms in abiotic and prebiotic evolution, linear and non-linear mixing processes, as well as dynamics of solitary waves, are identified. Before the question of the meaning of life in prebiotic environments is renewed and an educated guess based on the elaborated arguments is made on the progress of evolution under the influencing impression of the living state, the evolution of functionality in different selective contexts is analyzed

Evolutionary Systems. A Manifesto

After roughly 35 years of development in the theories of self-organization and related variants (chaos, self-organized criticality, and so forth), it is somewhat of a surprise that physics proper has not yet sufficiently found its entry into the ongoing quest for a precise concept of information. [...