Information, Physics, Life and Brain

whose main objective is to show that the concept of information emerges naturally as an active sine qua non participant in life systems, whereas in the inanimate physical world it appears only as the consequence of biological interactions with it (metabolic, sensory, cognitive or motor). Parts of the book attempt to clarify the meaning of information when used (often somewhat loosely) in quantum mechanics, statistical thermodynamics and cosmology. Since the ultimate information-processor in science is the human brain, pertinent aspects of what is known today about neural processing are woven into the text. More complete literature references for this compendium can be found in the original book. What is information? The mere asking of such a question seems absurd. Aren’t we living in the “Information Age”? Information is shaping human society. Not just in recent times—it has been doing so since the dawn of humankind: information-processing power is what distinguishes us from animals. Today, information-processing machines are getting faster, better, cheaper, and smaller, yet the most complex, most sophisticated, most exquisite information-processing system has been around in its present form for tens of thousands of years: the human brain. Every task that the brain executes is an information-processing task—however simple, however complex. Our own self-consciousness, without which we wouldn’t be humans, involves an interplay in rea