Information Epistemology

Author: Wu Kun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-11-01
Features: 1. Information is the elimination of uncertainty. This is a definition of information based on the theory of communication information proposed by Shannon. The meaning is that before communication, the receiver of the message has an understanding of the uncertainty of the content of the message being sent. After receiving the message, the original uncertainty of the receiver will be partially or fully eliminated. Therefore, information is the elimination of uncertainty. Here, the elimination of uncertainty is a measure of the relative degree of surprise, so some people also say "information is the difference between two degrees of uncertainty." The same message will have different effects on different receivers, and the amount of uncertainty eliminated will also be different. New knowledge eliminates a greater amount of uncertainty, and the amount of information is also greater; messages without new knowledge cannot eliminate any uncertainty, and the amount of information is 0. If I represents the information transmitted in the communication process, u represents the uncertainty of the information before communication, and U represents the uncertainty of the information after communication, then the following formula will hold: I = U - U. From the above discussion, it can be clearly seen that the definition "information is the elimination of uncertainty" is, in fact, a relative functional definition of information from the perspective of the effect of information on the recipient. 2. Information is negative entropy. The founder of cybernetics, Wiener, once focused on explaining the meaning of negative entropy of information. In physics (related to the second law of thermodynamics), entropy is a concept that represents the degree of uncertainty or chaos of a system. The elimination of uncertainty means the reduction of entropy, so information can be called negative entropy. This also gives rise to the saying "information is a sign of the organization level (or orderliness, order) of a system." From the above two definitions of the nature of information, we can see that the provisions made for information in practical information theory have the characteristics of relativity, functionality, and quantifiability. Although such provisions have great practical value within the scope of practical information theory, they are difficult to reveal the essence and significance of the universal nature of information. (III) The concept of information in philosophy To overcome the narrowness of the provisions made for the concept of information in practical information theory, many scientists and philosophers have tried to generalize the nature of information from a philosophical perspective. While Wiener compared information to negative entropy from the perspective of practical information theory, he also tried to discuss the nature of information from a philosophical perspective. He had two very influential proposals: first, "information is information, not matter, nor energy,"① and second, "information is the name of the content exchanged with the external world in the process of adapting to the external world and making this adaptation felt by the external world."② Although Wiener did not accurately define the essence of information from the positive side, he correctly emphasized the independent value and significance of information compared to matter and energy. At the same time, he recognized that information should be grasped from the perspective of "exchange content" (rather than from the form of the carrier). Most philosophical interpretations of the nature of information are still limited to simple analogies with existing explanations in practical information science or philosophical categories. For example, interpreting information as "variability," "difference amount," etc., is a simple analogy with the statistical measurement characteristics of information in practical information theory; while interpreting information as "spatio-temporal sequence," "state," "organization," "orderliness," etc., is a comparison of information with the distribution characteristics of its carrier. For example, interpreting information as: "Information is the universal attribute of matter," "Information is the mode of existence of matter," "Information is the characteristic of a spiritual entity," "Information is a third state that is neither matter nor spirit," "Information is a special fusion of material and spiritual components," "Information is the externalization of movement," "Information belongs to the category of material interactions," etc., is a simple analogy with the definitions of existing traditional philosophical concepts. In the discussion on the nature of information, whether it adopts a simple analogy with the explanations of practical information science or a simple analogy with the meanings of traditional philosophical categories, there is no way out. I have advocated that a philosophical critical attitude should be adopted in the discussion of the nature of information. This criticism is dual: on the one hand, it is the criticism of philosophy to concrete science, which aims to eliminate the various limitations of narrowness brought by concrete science to the interpretation of information, thereby allowing philosophy to grasp information beyond the threshold of concrete science; on the other hand, it is the criticism of philosophy to itself, which aims to overcome the limitations of the old framework and theory of traditional philosophy in interpreting the nature of information, thereby allowing philosophy to grasp information beyond the threshold of the old system of traditional philosophy. Here, a dual criticism and dual transcendence are being carried out.① I once discussed the nature of information in a special article titled "Essentials of Philosophical Information Theory"② and briefly summarize the basic points as follows: From the perspective of the existence of information, information is not a specific direct material existence form. Information constitutes its own existence value in the sense of representing, expressing, externalizing, and displaying the meaning and characteristics of things. Information is an indirect existence form of the characteristics of the things it represents. The interaction between matter necessarily causes some changes in the internal structure, state of motion, and nature of both interacting parties. The "trace" of these changes is the reception and storage of information about the interacting object. In this process, both parties are simultaneously both the source (outputting their own information) and the recipient (inputting information received from the other party), and are also simultaneously the carrier (storing the input information from the other party in some changed "trace" of their own, which is also to carry it). Due to the universality of material interaction and the beginninglessness of matter and time, no material system in the universe can remain in an original initial state that has never interacted with anything else. Therefore, any object has already evolved into an information body with specific structure and state, condensed with various information. It is precisely this information body nature of matter that determines that any object is a unity of direct and indirect existence, and this unity itself simultaneously possesses the three attributes of the source, the carrier, and the information. From this, we can see the scope of information: information exists wherever matter exists. Materialists must admit that the content of information can be completely summarized in the form and state of matter itself in a general sense. Objects continuously radiate and reflect particles internally and externally due to objective interactions from within and without. In this way, they transmit the information about their own form and state of existence through this particle field with specific properties and distribution. This reveals that the source of generating information reflecting the form and state of material existence lies in the material world itself, in the self-movement of matter. It is precisely this self-displaying attribute of matter that makes this world a knowable world. Based on the above analysis, we can at least distinguish several basic levels of the concept of information: 1. Information is the mode of existence of matter, an attribute of matter. This is a general definition of the concept of information from the perspective of philosophical materialist ontology.