Tom Stonier – författare

Information and Meaning is the third book in a trilogy exploring the nature of information, intelligence and meaning. It begins by providing an overview of the first two works of the trilogy, then goes on to consider the meaning of meaning. This explorat ion leads to a theory of how the brain works. This book differs from others in the field, in that it is written from the perspective of a theoretical biologist looking at the evolution of information systems as a basis for studying the phenomena of information, intelligence and meaning. It describes how neurons create a brain which understands information inputs and then is able to operate on such information.

Preamble The emergence of machine intelligence during the second half of the twentieth century is the most important development in the evolution of this planet since the origin of life two to three thousand million years ago. The emergence of machine intelligence within the matrix of human society is analogous to the emergence, three billion years ago, of complex, self-replicating molecules within the matrix of an energy-rich molecular soup - the first step in the evolution of life. The emergence of machine intelligence within a human social context has set into motion irreversible processes which will lead to an evolutionary discontinuity. Just as the emergence of "Life" represented a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter and energy, so will pure "Intelligence" represent a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter, energy and life. The emergence of machine intelligence presages the progression of the human species as we know it, into a form which, at present, we would not recognise as "human". As Forsyth and Naylor (1985) have pointed out: "Humanity has opened two Pandora''s boxes at the same time, one labelled genetic engineering, the other labelled knowledge engineering. What we have let out is not entirely clear, but it is reasonable to hazard a guess that it contains the seeds of our successors".

Not so if the book has been translated into Arabic. Now the reader can discern no meaning in the letters. The text conveys almost no information to the reader, yet the linguistic informa­ tion contained by the book is virtually the same as in the English original. The reader, familiar with books will still recognise two things, however: First, that the book is a book. Second, that the squiggles on the page represent a pattern of abstractions which probably makes sense to someone who understands the mean­ ing of those squiggles. Therefore, the book as such, will still have some meaning for the English reader, even if the content of the text has none. Let us go to a more extreme case. Not a book, but a stone, or a rock with engravings in an ancient language no longer under­ stood by anyone alive. Does such a stone not contain human information even if it is not decipherable? Suppose at some point in the future, basic knowledge about linguistics and clever computer aids allow us to decipher it? Or suppose someone discovers the equivalent of a Rosetta stone which allows us to translate it into a known language, and then into English? Can one really say that the stone contained no information prior to translation? It is possible to argue that the stone, prior to deciphering contained only latent information.

In comparing plant and animal tumors it must bc remembered, however, that there are certain developmental and I'unctional characteristics C01- monly used in the differentiation of animal cancers that are more or less restricted to animals and cannot, therefore, be carried over and applied to plant tumors. These have been dealt with in detail by WHITE and BRAUN (1942) and by BLACK (1949), and will not be considered further here. The most essential characteristic of being able to grow independently of any morphogenetic restraint, upon which all of the other diagnostic features must ultimately depend, is, however, equaHy capable of expression in neoplasia of a11 higher organisms since it is a characteristic of the ceH itself. One striking aspect of tumor genesis is the multiplicity of diverse agencies that are seemingly capable of accomplishing essentially the same end result. Radiant energy, irritation, carcinogenic ehemicals, parasitic organisms, and virus es have all been shown to serve as incitors of tumors in animals. The effectiveness of these various I'actors in cliciting tumor formation appears to be a I'unction of the hereditary constitution of the host.Many of these same agencies have also beeIl found to be concerned etiologically in the inception of tumors in plants.

Preamble The emergence of machine intelligence during the second half of the twentieth century is the most important development in the evolution of this planet since the origin of life two to three thousand million years ago. The emergence of machine intelligence within the matrix of human society is analogous to the emergence, three billion years ago, of complex, self-replicating molecules within the matrix of an energy-rich molecular soup - the first step in the evolution of life. The emergence of machine intelligence within a human social context has set into motion irreversible processes which will lead to an evolutionary discontinuity. Just as the emergence of "Life" represented a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter and energy, so will pure "Intelligence" represent a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter, energy and life. The emergence of machine intelligence presages the progression of the human species as we know it, into a form which, at present, we would not recognise as "human". As Forsyth and Naylor (1985) have pointed out: "Humanity has opened two Pandora's boxes at the same time, one labelled genetic engineering, the other labelled knowledge engineering. What we have let out is not entirely clear, but it is reasonable to hazard a guess that it contains the seeds of our successors".

Not so if the book has been translated into Arabic. Now the reader can discern no meaning in the letters. The text conveys almost no information to the reader, yet the linguistic informa­ tion contained by the book is virtually the same as in the English original. The reader, familiar with books will still recognise two things, however: First, that the book is a book. Second, that the squiggles on the page represent a pattern of abstractions which probably makes sense to someone who understands the mean­ ing of those squiggles. Therefore, the book as such, will still have some meaning for the English reader, even if the content of the text has none. Let us go to a more extreme case. Not a book, but a stone, or a rock with engravings in an ancient language no longer under­ stood by anyone alive. Does such a stone not contain human information even if it is not decipherable? Suppose at some point in the future, basic knowledge about linguistics and clever computer aids allow us to decipher it? Or suppose someone discovers the equivalent of a Rosetta stone which allows us to translate it into a known language, and then into English? Can one really say that the stone contained no information prior to translation? It is possible to argue that the stone, prior to deciphering contained only latent information.

Ist Information eine unabhängige Größe, wie Masse, Impuls oder elektrische Ladung? Professor T. Stonier ist davon überzeugt. Information existiert, unabhängig davon, ob jemand sie versteht. Mehr als 2000 Jahre konnte niemand ägyptische Hieroglyphen entziffern, die Information war aber enthalten. Niemand wird bezweifeln, daß ein DNA-Kristall mehr Information trägt als ein Salzkristall derselben Masse. Der entscheidende Punkt ist, daß die Bildung eines DNA-Kristalls mehr Energie benötigt. Energie wird verbraucht, um Information zu erzeugen, d.h. um den Organisationsgrad eines Systems zu erhöhen bzw. seine Entropie zu reduzieren. Tom Stonier stellt den Begriff von Information und ihre Bedeutung von einer neuen Warte dar. Wer mit Information zu tun hat, sollte dieses Buch lesen. Die Zeit schreibt zur englischen Ausgabe: "... unterstützt er seine Thesen mit einleuchtenden Beispielen und Metaphern, die auch Nichtphysikern das Lesen seines Buches zum logischen Vergnügen machen. Nebenbei lernen wir bei ihm eine Menge Physik und Molekulargenetik."

Information and Meaning is the third book in a trilogy exploring the nature of information, intelligence and meaning. It begins by providing an overview of the first two works of the trilogy, then goes on to consider the meaning of meaning. This explorat ion leads to a theory of how the brain works. This book differs from others in the field, in that it is written from the perspective of a theoretical biologist looking at the evolution of information systems as a basis for studying the phenomena of information, intelligence and meaning. It describes how neurons create a brain which understands information inputs and then is able to operate on such information.

Ist Information eine unabhängige Größe, wie Masse, Impuls oder elektrische Ladung? Professor T. Stonier ist davon überzeugt. Information existiert, unabhängig davon, ob jemand sie versteht. Mehr als 2000 Jahre konnte niemand ägyptische Hieroglyphen entziffern, die Information war aber enthalten. Niemand wird bezweifeln, daß ein DNA-Kristall mehr Information trägt als ein Salzkristall derselben Masse. Der entscheidende Punkt ist, daß die Bildung eines DNA-Kristalls mehr Energie benötigt. Energie wird verbraucht, um Information zu erzeugen, d.h. um den Organisationsgrad eines Systems zu erhöhen bzw. seine Entropie zu reduzieren. Tom Stonier stellt den Begriff von Information und ihre Bedeutung von einer neuen Warte dar. Wer mit Information zu tun hat, sollte dieses Buch lesen. Die Zeit schreibt zur englischen Ausgabe: "... unterstützt er seine Thesen mit einleuchtenden Beispielen und Metaphern, die auch Nichtphysikern das Lesen seines Buches zum logischen Vergnügen machen. Nebenbei lernen wir bei ihm eine Menge Physik und Molekulargenetik."