In the Beginning was Information

information as a semantic entity which is elaborated and adaptedby the actual sender without modifying in any real sense the originallycreated information. All animal languages can be included inthis category, because all allocated meanings are fixed. The acts ofperforming animals are reproductive and not creative. Computersoftware functions according to this principle, since all creativeideas like algorithms (methods of solution) and data structures hadto be devised beforehand by the programmer and then implementedin the form of a written program. The various relevant parameterscan be entered into a machine (computer) which does nothingmore than reproduce the available information in the requiredform. Even the results obtained by means of AI programs (artificialintelligence; see Appendix A2.3) are in the last instance nothingmore than reproduced information. They may be quite complexand may appear to be “intelligent”, but they cannot create information.Machines can reproduce information, since reproduction doesnot entail creative thought processes.3. Creative information: This is the highest level of transmittedinformation: something new is produced. It does not involvecopied or reproduced information. This kind of information alwaysrequires a personal mind exercising its own free will, as originalsource. This generally entails a nonmaterial intellectual process,which thus cannot be entrusted to a machine. Creative informationcan always be linked to a person who has cognitive capabilities,and it represents something new. We can now formulate the followingspecial theorem:Theorem 29: Every piece of creative information representssome mental effort and can be traced to a personal idea-giverwho exercised his own free will, and who is endowed with anintelligent mind.This theorem can also be expressed as follows:Theorem 30: New information can only originate in a creativethought process.Examples of creative information: designing a coding system,designing a language, untrammelled discourse by means of natural113