Emergent Information Some System-theoretical Considerations about an Integrative Information Concept

Philosophy-of-information considerations can analyse information concepts according to four ways of thinking. A Unified Theory of Information (UTI) requires the fourth way of thinking – integration. This integration can be performed, if a complex systems view is informed by the heuristics of a historical and logical account. In particular, the terms of “difference” or “variety”, negentropy and semiosis are used for integration. Reference is made to Gregory Bateson, Arkady D. Ursul, Edgar Morin, and Charles Sanders Peirce. An integrated information definition is presented. Information is defined as relation such that an Evolutionary System se (signator; the signmaker) reflects (1) some perturbation P (signandum/signatum; (to-be-)signified (2) by the order O it builds up spontaneously (signans; the sign) (3) for the sake of negentropy. The process of information-generation coincides with the process of sign-production and both coincide with the process of self-organisation; so do their respective results: information, sign, and self-organised order. The concepts of self-organisation and information (sign) turn out to be co-extensive. The notion “emergent information” is applied to characterise the complexity of information processes that proceed between determinacy and indeterminacy. Since information generation is a process that allows novelty to emerge, it is worth noting that it is not a mechanical process that can be formalised, expressed by a mathematical function, or carried out by a computer.