INFORMATION AS A MANIFESTATION OF THE DYNAMICS OF SYSTEMS

摘要

Although evident, the ubiquity of information, the multitude of forms it takes, and therncrucial role it plays in the realization, integration, and coordination of behavior in naturalrnand artificial systems, are all difficult to explain in an all-embracing, consistent manner.rnParticularly difficult, for example, is to unify theories of cognition and self-organizationrnwith those of the creation of meaning and signification (Brier, 1999). The notion ofrninformation as a manifestation of the dynamics of systems offers a uniform perspectivernfor the study of information and information-processing related phenomena. In this paperrnit is shown that, despite the differences involved, this uniform perspective helps tornidentify and analyze features of information processing that are common to the variousrnlevels and types of information processing in biological, human, and social systems suchrnas organizations. Moreover, this can be done with due regard to features that are specificrnto particular levels or types of information processing.