In the Beginning Was Information (10 page)

Let us again consider book B mentioned initially to help us understand the nature of the next level. There is a Russian saying that "The effect of words can last one hour, but a book serves as a perpetual reminder." Books can have lasting effects. After one has read a software manual, for example, one can use the described system. Many people who read the Bible are moved to act in entirely new ways. In this regard, Blaise Pascal said, "There are enough passages in Scripture to comfort people in all spheres of life, and there are enough passages that can horrify them." Information always leads to some action, although, for our purposes, it is immaterial whether the recipient acts according to the sender’s wishes, responds negatively, or ignores it. It often happens that even a concise but striking promotional slogan for a washing powder can result in a preference for that brand.

Up to the semantic level, the purpose the sender has with the transmitted information is not considered. Every transmission of information indicates that the sender has some purpose in mind for the recipient. In order to achieve the intended result, the sender describes the actions required of the recipient to bring him to implement the desired purpose. We have now reached an entirely new level of information, called pragmatics (Greek
pragmatike
= the art of doing the right thing; taking action).

Some examples of pragmatic aspects are:
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a) Concerning the sender:

– What actions are desired of the recipient?

– Has a specific action been formulated explicitly, or should it be implicit?

– Is the action required by the sender to be taken in only one predetermined way, or is there some degree of freedom?

b) Concerning the recipient:

– To what extent does the received and understood meaning influence the behavior of the recipient?

– What is the actual response of the recipient?

Theorem 17:
Information always entails a pragmatic aspect.

The pragmatic aspect could:

– be unnegotiable and unambiguous without any degree of freedom, e.g., a computer program, activities in a cell, or a military command;

– allow a limited freedom of choice, like instinctive acts of animals;

– allow considerable freedom of action (only in the case of human beings).

Note: Even if there is considerable variation in the pragmatics resulting from the semantics, it does not detract anything from the validity of Theorem 17.

When language is used, it does not simply mean that sentences are jumbled together, but that requests, complaints, questions, instructions, teachings, warnings, threats, and commands are formulated to coerce the recipient to take some action. Information was defined by Werner Strombach [S12] as a structure which achieves some result in a receiving system. He thus referred to the important aspect of taking action.

We can distinguish two types of action:

a) Fixed:

– programmed actions (e.g., mechanical manufacturing processes, the operation of data processing programs, construction of biological cells, respiration, blood circulation, and the functioning of organs)

– instinctive acts (behavior of animals)

– trained actions (e.g., police dogs, and circus performances involving lions, elephants, horses, bears, tigers, dogs, seals, dolphins, etc.)

b) Flexible and creative:

– learned activities like social manners and manual skills

– sensible actions (humans)

– intuitive actions (humans)

– intelligent actions based on free will (humans)

All the activities of the recipient can depend on information that has previously been conceptualized by the sender for the intended purpose. On the other hand, intelligent actions that do not derive from a sender are also possible.

A relevant theorem is the following:

Theorem 18:
Information is able to cause the recipient to take some action (stimulate, initialize, or implement). This reactive functioning of information is valid for both inanimate systems (e.g., computers or an automatic car wash) as well as living organisms (e.g., activities in cells, actions of animals, and activities of human beings).

4.5 The Fifth Level of Information: Apobetics

We consider book B for the last time to illustrate one further level of information. Goethe once said, "Certain books seem to have been written not so much to enable one to learn something, but to show that the author knew something." This reason for writing a book, which is of course not worth emulating, does, however, express something of fundamental importance: The sender has some purpose for the recipient. The purpose of a promotional slogan is that the manufacturing firm can have a good turnover for the year. In the New Testament, John mentions a completely different purpose for his information: "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). We conclude that some purpose is pursued whenever information is involved.

We now realize that any piece of information has a purpose, and have come to the last and highest level of information, namely apobetics (the teleological aspect, the question of the purpose; derived from the Greek apobeinon = result, success, conclusion). The term "apobetics" was introduced by the author in 1981 [G4] to conform to the titles of the other four levels. For every result on the side of the recipient there is a corresponding conceptual purpose, plan, or representation in the mind of the sender. The teleological aspect of information is the most important, because it concerns the premeditated purpose of the sender. Any piece of information involves the question: "Why does the sender communicate this information, and what result does he want to achieve for or in the recipient?" The following examples should elucidate this aspect:

– The male bird calls a mate by means of his song, or he establishes his territory.

– Computer programs are written with a purpose (e.g., solution a set of equations, inversion of matrices, or to manipulate some system).

– The manufacturer of chocolate A uses a promotional slogan to the recipient to buy his brand.

– The Creator gave gregarious insects a pheromonal language for the purpose of communication, for example to identify intruders or indicate the location of a new source of food.

– Man was gifted with a natural language; this can be used for communicating with other people, and to formulate purposes.

– God gives us a purpose in life through the Bible; this is discussed more fully in Part 3 of this book.

Examples of questions concerning apobetics, are:

a) Concerning the sender:

– Has an unambiguous purpose been defined?

– What purpose is intended for the recipient?

– Can this purpose be recognized directly, or could it only be deduced indirectly?

b) Concerning the recipient:

– What purpose is achieved through the actions of the recipient?

– Does the result obtained in the recipient correspond to the purpose which the sender had in mind?

– Did the recipient find a purpose which the sender had not intended (e.g., the evaluation of historical documents could serve a purpose which was never thought of by the author)?

The sender’s intention can be achieved in various ways by the recipient:

– completely (doing exactly what the sender requested)

– partly

– not at all

– doing exactly the opposite

The response to an unambiguously formulated purpose (e.g., computer program, commands given personally, or promotional material) could be any one of these different actions. The purpose could, however, not even be mentioned, or could not have been imagined by the sender (e.g., documents with trivial contents surviving from previous centuries which provide researchers with important clues not intended by the original author).

In this case also we can formulate significant empirical theorems:

Theorem 19:
Every piece of information is intentional (the teleological aspect).
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Theorem 20:
The teleological aspect of information is the most important level, since it comprises the intentions of the sender. The sum total of the four lower levels is that they are only a means for attaining the purpose (apobetics).

Note: The teleological aspect may often overlap and coincide with the pragmatic aspect to a large extent, but it is theoretically always possible to distinguish the two.

Theorem 21:
The five aspects of information (statistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and apobetics) are valid for both the sender and the recipient. The five levels are involved in a continuous interplay between the two.

Theorem 22:
The separate aspects of information are interlinked in such a way that every lower level is a necessary prerequisite for the realization of the next one above it.

Whenever the teleological aspect is minimized or deliberately ignored, we should be aware of the fact that Theorem 19 is violated. Evolutionary doctrine deliberately denies any purposefulness that might be apparent. In the words of G.G. Simpson, an American zoologist, "Man is the result of a materialistic process having no purpose or intent; he represents the highest fortuitous organizational form of matter and energy."

In this respect, one more theorem is required:

Theorem 23:
There is no known natural law through which matter can give rise to information, neither is any physical process or material phenomenon known that can do this.

Synopsis: It should be clear that information is a multi-layered concept. Shannon’s theory embraces only a very small fraction of the real nature of information, as can easily be ascertained in terms of the five levels that we discussed. Contradictory statements and erroneous conclusions of many authors are a result of discussing information without being clear about the relevant level, nor whether the appropriate level lends itself to wide ranging conclusions. It is, for example, not possible to find answers about the origin of biological systems, when one only considers the statistical level. Even when impressive mathematical formulations are forthcoming, they will bring no clarification if they are restricted to the level of Shannon’s theory. Well-founded conclusions are only possible when the sender/recipient problem is treated fully at all five information levels.

All of the Theorems 1 to 23 formulated thus far, as well as Theorems 24 to 30, which will follow, are based on empirical reality. They may thus be regarded as natural laws, since they exhibit the characteristics of natural laws as explained in chapter 2. These theorems have been tested in real situations (compare Theorem N1 in paragraph 2.3). Any natural law can be rejected the moment a single counter example is found, and this also holds for these information theorems. After many talks by the author at colleges and universities, both abroad and at home, no researcher could mention one single counter example. In one case, somebody said that it might be possible that one of these theorems could be negated a few million years in the future, when a counter example may be found. My answer was that it was possible, as in the case of all natural laws. However, even if one or more of the theorems could be nullified by a counter example after a few million years, we still have to accept them and live with them now.

The seven most important results are repeated once more:

• There can be no information without a code.
  
• Any code is the result of a free and deliberate convention.
  
• There can be no information without a sender.
  
• Any given chain of information points to a mental source.
  
• There can be no information without volition (will).
  
• There can be no information unless all five hierarchical levels are involved: statistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and apobetics.
  
• Information cannot originate in statistical processes.
  

These seven theorems can also be formulated as impossibility theorems, as has been shown in paragraph 2.5 for practically all laws of nature:

• It is impossible to set up, store, or transmit information without using a code.
  
• It is impossible to have a code apart from a free and deliberate convention.
  
• It is impossible that information can exist without having had a mental source.
  
• It is impossible for information to exist without having been established voluntarily by a free will.
  
• It is impossible for information to exist without all five hierarchical levels — statistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and apobetics.
  
• It is impossible that information can originate in statistical processes.
  

We still have to describe a domain of definition for all these theorems; this will be done in the next chapter.

Figure 14 may serve the purpose of ordering the proposed theorems. Three phenomena are represented hierarchically, namely matter, information, and life, with matter at the lowest level. All known natural laws belong here (e.g., conservation of energy, strength of materials, and electric charge). According to Theorem 1, information is not a property of matter, and thus requires a next higher level. All information theorems belong to this level. The highest level is that of life. Natural laws belonging to this level may be called life theorems. A fundamental theorem at this level was formulated by Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), and it has not yet been contradicted by any experiment: "Life can only come from life." The following statements can be made about the three hierarchical levels shown in Figure 14:

* Information is nonmaterial, but it requires material media for storage and transmission.