In the Beginning was Information

million rows and 2.77 million columns and copy an entire Bible in a readableform in each of the tiny rectangles formed in this way. If this werepossible, we would have reached the density of the information carried ineach and every living cell. In any case, we should remember that it istechnologically impossible to produce slide B, because all photographictechniques are limited to macroscopic reproductions and are unable toemploy single molecules as units of storage. Even if it were possible toachieve such a photographic reduction, then we would still only have astatic storage system, which differs fundamentally from that of DNA. Thestorage principle of DNA molecules is dynamic, since the contained informationcan be transferred unchanged to other cells by means of complexmechanisms.These comparisons illustrate in a breath-taking way the brilliant storageconcepts we are dealing with here, as well as the economic use of materialand miniaturisation. The highest known (statistical) information density isobtained in living cells, exceeding by far the best achievements of highlyintegrated storage densities in computer systems.A1.3 Evaluation of Communication SystemsTechnical communication systems: After the discussion of Shannon’sdefinition of information in paragraph A1.1, the relevant question is: Whatis the use of a method which ignores the main principles of a phenomenon?The original and the most important application of Shannon’s informationtheory is given by the two so-called encoding theorems [S7]. Thesetheorems state, inter alia, that in spite of the uncertainty caused by a perturbedcommunication link, the reception of a message could be certain. Inother words, there exists an error-correcting method of encoding whichassures greater message security with a given block (message) length.Furthermore, the unit of measure, the bit, derived from Shannon’s definitionof information, is fundamental to a quantitative assessment of informationstorage. It is also possible, at the statistical level, to comparedirectly given volumes of information which are encoded in various ways.This problem has been discussed fully in the previous paragraph A1.2.Communication systems in living organisms: Bernhard Hassenstein, aGerman biologist and cyberneticist, gave an impressive example illustratingboth the brilliant concept of information transfer in living organisms,and its evaluation in terms of Shannon’s theory:“It is difficult, even frightening, to believe that the incomparable multiplicityof our experiences, the plethora of nuances – lights, colours and193