In the Beginning was Information

no purpose or intent; he represents the highest fortuitous organisationalform of matter and energy.”In this respect one more theorem is required:Theorem 23: There is no known natural law through whichmatter can give rise to information, neither is any physicalprocess or material phenomenon known that can do this.Synopsis: It should be clear that information is a multi-layeredconcept. Shannon’s theory embraces only a very small fraction ofthe real nature of information, as can easily be ascertained in termsof the five levels that we discussed. Contradictory statements anderroneous conclusions of many authors are a result of discussinginformation without being clear about the relevant level, norwhether the appropriate level lends itself to wide ranging conclusions.It is for example not possible to find answers about the originof biological systems, when one only considers the statisticallevel. Even when impressive mathematical formulations are forthcoming,they will bring no clarification if they are restricted to thelevel of Shannon’s theory. Well-founded conclusions are only possiblewhen the sender/recipient problem is treated fully at all fiveinformation levels.All of the theorems 1 to 23 formulated thus far, as well as theorems24 to 30 which will follow, are based on empirical reality. Theymay thus be regarded as natural laws, since they exhibit the characteristicsof natural laws as explained in Chapter 2. These theoremshave been tested in real situations (compare Theorem N1 in paragraph2.3). Any natural law can be rejected the moment a singlecounter example is found, and this also holds for these informationtheorems. After many talks by the author at colleges and universities,both abroad and at home, no researcher could mention onesingle counter example. In one case somebody said that it might bepossible that one of these theorems could be negated a few millionyears in the future, when a counter example may be found. Myanswer was that it was possible, as in the case of all natural laws.However, even if one or more of the theorems could be nullified bya counter example after a few million years, we still have to acceptthem and live with them now.79