A dynamical model of the meaning of information.
The main challenge for information science is to naturalize the semantic content of information. This can only be achieved in the context of a naturalized teleology (by 'teleology' is meant the coherence and the coordination of the physical forces which constitute the living state). Neither semiotics nor cybernetics are capable of performing this task, but non-equilibrium thermodynamics and non-linear dynamics may be. A physical theory of the meaning of information is sketched, first by identifying biofunctions with generalized non-linear oscillators and their associated phase-space attractors, and then by postulating the existence, within all such oscillators, of a component capable of coordinating low-energy interactions with the correct environmental conditions supporting the dynamical stability of the oscillator. The meaning of information is thus interpreted as the prediction of successful functional action.
Barham
J
J
D003491:Cybernetics; D007254:Information Science; D008962:Models, Theoretical