What is Information?

Abstract

Information is a precise concept that can be defined mathematically, but its relationship to what we call "knowledge" is not always made clear. Furthermore, the concepts "entropy" and "information", while deeply related, are distinct and must be used with care, something that is not always achieved in the literature. In this elementary introduction, the concepts of entropy and information are laid out one by one, explained intuitively, but defined rigorously. I argue that a proper understanding of information in terms of prediction is key to a number of disciplines beyond engineering, such as physics and biology.

19 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society A

References in corpus (5)

• Information theory in molecular biology
• Critical dynamics in the evolution of stochastic strategies for the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma
• Information-theoretic considerations concerning the origin of life
• One-shot decoupling and Page curves from a dynamical model for black hole evaporation
• Discovery and information-theoretic characterization of transcription factor binding sites that act cooperatively

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• Laplacian paths in complex networks: information core emerges from entropic transitions
• The Gibbs paradox, the Landauer principle and the irreversibility associated with tilted observers
• Quantum propensities in the brain cortex and free will
• The theory of gravitation: A tale of many questions and few answers
• Information Fragmentation, Encryption and Information Flow in Complex Biological Networks
• Rebuilding the Habitable Zone from the Bottom Up with Computational Zones
• Can Turing machine be curious about its Turing test results? Three informal lectures on physics of intelligence