Meaning = Information + Evolution

Abstract

Notions like meaning, signal, intentionality, are difficult to relate to a physical word. I study a purely physical definition of "meaningful information", from which these notions can be derived. It is inspired by a model recently illustrated by Kolchinsky and Wolpert, and improves on Dretske classic work on the relation between knowledge and information. I discuss what makes a physical process into a "signal".

6 pages, 1 figure

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Constraints on physical reality arising from a formalization of knowledge
• Does purely physical information have meaning? A comment on Carlo Rovelli's paper: Meaning = information + evolution [arXiv:1611.02420]
• Physical grounds for causal perspectivalism
• Defining Pathway Assembly and Exploring its Applications