In the Beginning was Information

5 Delineation of the Information ConceptThe question now arises as to the region in which the derived theoremsare valid. Do they only hold for computers, or also above andbeyond that in all technological domains? Are living systems includedor not?And what is the position with regard to unknown systems whichwe might like to evaluate? Are there criteria which enable us todetermine beforehand whether the theorems may be applied, orwhether we have left the domain of validity? We thus require anunambiguous definition.We have already considered a number of examples which we havetacitly included in the domain, viz. a computer program, a book,flag codes, and hieroglyphics. But what about the crystallinestructure of a metal or a salt, or of a snowflake, all of which becomevisible under magnification? The starry skies are investigatedby means of telescopes and we obtain “information” about thestars in this way. A detective gathers “information” at the scene ofa crime and deduces circumstantial evidence from meaningfulclues. A paleontologist may observe the mussel-bearing shale in ageological layer. The scientist “studies the book of nature” andobtains new knowledge in this way. New technological regularitiesare discovered, and, when formulated, they comprise a lot ofinformation. Now which of the above examples belong to ourdomain?Every scientific definition of a concept requires precise formulation,as in everyday communications. A definition serves to fix matters,but it also brings limitations. The same holds for the informationconcept.To be able to define a domain, we require a peculiar property ofinformation, namely its representational function. Information itselfis never the actual object or fact, neither is it a relationship(event or idea), but the encoded symbols merely represent thatwhich is discussed. Symbols of extremely different nature (see83