UID:
almafu_9960117598202883
Format:
1 online resource (xxii, 494 pages) :
,
digital, PDF file(s).
ISBN:
1-108-11622-1
,
1-108-11686-8
,
1-316-58420-8
Content:
Recent advances suggest that the concept of information might hold the key to unravelling the mystery of life's nature and origin. Fresh insights from a broad and authoritative range of articulate and respected experts focus on the transition from matter to life, and hence reconcile the deep conceptual schism between the way we describe physical and biological systems. A unique cross-disciplinary perspective, drawing on expertise from philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics, and cognitive and social sciences, provides a new way to look at the deepest questions of our existence. This book addresses the role of information in life, and how it can make a difference to what we know about the world. Students, researchers, and all those interested in what life is and how it began will gain insights into the nature of life and its origins that touch on nearly every domain of science.
Note:
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 20 Mar 2017).
,
Cover -- Half-title -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Table of contents -- About the authors -- 1 Introduction -- Part I Physics and Life -- 2 The ``Hard Problem'' of Life -- Why This ``Hard Problem''? -- What Is Possible Under the Known Laws of Physics? -- Life ... from New Physics? -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 3 Beyond Initial Conditions and Laws of Motion: Constructor Theory of Information and Life -- Constructor Theory of Life -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Part II Bio from Bit -- 4 (How) Did Information Emerge? -- Was There a Time before Information Existed? -- There Is No Doubt that Information Matters -- What Forms Can Information Take and What Roles Can It Play? -- Information Is Physical -- Self-Organising Chemical Networks -- A Toy Model -- The Origin of Meaning -- What More Does It Take to Boot Up Life? -- About `Aboutness' -- Autonomous Agency -- Finally, We Come Full Circle -- Coda -- References -- 5 On the Emerging Codes for Chemical Evolution -- The 1st dimension: Chemical Networks -- The 2nd dimension: Macromolecular and Supramolecular Organization -- The 3rd dimension: Convergent Functions -- Coherence and Feedback -- References -- 6 Digital and Analogue Information in Organisms -- The Question -- Comparison of Digital DNA Information with Analogue Information in Patterns and Structures -- Differential and Integral Views of Genetics -- Weak Version of the Differential View -- The Strong Version of the Differential View -- Experimental Evidence -- Must Evolutionary Change Always Be by DNA Mutations? -- The Integrative View of the Relations between Genotypes and Phenotypes -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 7 From Entropy to Information: Biased Typewriters and the Origin of Life -- Information Content of Biomolecules -- Testing the Likelihood of Emergence by Chance -- Biased Typewriters.
,
Discussion -- Methods -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Part III Life's Hidden Information -- 8 Cryptographic Nature -- Secret Life -- Imitative Entropy -- The Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems -- Functional Requirements for Evolutionary Encryption -- Candidate Adaptive One-Way-Functions -- Shuffled Parasites -- Combinatorial Ciliates -- The Genetics of Speciation -- Cryptographic Complexity -- The ``c-Value'' Paradox -- Complexity Science as Cryptographic Inquiry -- Frozen Accidents -- Historical Encryption -- Conclusion: From Invariance to Complexity -- References -- 9 Noise and Function -- Shades of Gray: Noise in Image Processing -- Amplification by Noise in Natural Dynamical Systems -- Noise in Living Systems: Decision-Making in Ant Colonies -- Conclusion -- References -- 10 The Many Faces of State Space Compression -- Examples -- State Space Compression -- General Considerations for Formalizing SSC -- Basic Concepts and Notation -- Using SSC to Address Other Scientific Challenges -- A Form of Complexity Motivated by SSC -- Using SSC to Define Information Flow among Scales of a System -- Other Potential Applications of SSC -- Accuracy Costs -- Information-Theoretic Accuracy Costs -- Accuracy Cost Based on Mutual Information for Two Time Steps -- Accuracy Cost Based on Mutual Information for More Than Two Time Steps -- Alternative Information-Theoretic Accuracy Costs -- Computation Costs -- The Full SSC Objective Function -- The Trade-Off between Accuracy Cost and Computation Cost -- Heuristics for Minimizing the SSC Objective Function -- Related Work -- Causal States and Computational Mechanics -- State Aggregation, Decomposition, and Projection Methods -- Other Related Work -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References.
,
11 Causality, Information, and Biological Computation: An Algorithmic Software Approach to Life, Disease, and the Immune System -- Natural Computation and Programmability -- Information Biology -- How Natural Selection Programs and Reprograms Life -- A Hacker View of Cancer and the Immune System -- Immunity as Computation and Cancer as a Software-Engineering Problem -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Part IV Complexity and Causality -- 12 Life's Information Hierarchy -- Summary -- Introduction -- The Importance of Information -- Uncertainty Reduction -- Examples -- Slow Variables to Fundamental Macroscopic Properties -- Challenges -- Biology as Collective Computation -- Circuit Logic -- Information and Energy in Biology -- The Informational Cost of Biological Computation -- Bits to Joules and the Energetic Cost of Computation -- Collective Computation to Strategic Statistical Mechanics for Many-Body, Adaptive Systems -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 13 Living through Downward Causation: From Molecules to Ecosystems -- Causation -- What Is Special about Life? -- Cybernetic Control Systems -- Transcendent Complexes and Emergence -- Generalising Downward Causation -- Functional Equivalence Classes and Modular Hierarchy -- Quantifying Downward Causation -- Biological Examples -- The Functional Shapes of Biopolymers -- Downward Causation from Cells to Cellular Functions -- How We All Became the Shape We Are: Downward Causation from Structure to Cells -- Downward Causation from Community to Individual Organisms -- How Ecosystems Develop Downward Causation -- Natural Selection as Downward Causation -- Why Organisms Appear to Be Autonomous -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 14 Automata and Animats: From Dynamics to Cause-Effect Structures -- Intrinsic Cause-Effect Power -- Mechanisms and Concepts -- Cause-Effect Structures.
,
Behavior and Cause-Effect Power of Elementary Cellular Automata -- Behavior and Cause-Effect Power of Adapting Animats -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 15 Biological Information, Causality, and Specificity: An Intimate Relationship -- Information in Biology -- Causal Specificity: An Information-Theoretic Approach -- Arbitrariness, Information, and Regulation -- Distributed Specificity -- Information and `Downward Causation' -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Part V From Matter to Mind -- 16 Major Transitions in Political Order -- Coarse-Graining the Material World -- Minds in the Loop -- Broken Windows and the Normative Pathway -- Going Together to Get Along: Norm Bundles -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 17 Bits from Brains: Analyzing Distributed Computation in Neural Systems -- Information Theory and Neuroscience -- Preliminaries -- Basic Information-Theoretic Terms -- Why Information Theory in Neuroscience? -- Analyzing Distributed Computation in Neural Systems -- Analyzing Neural Coding and Goal Functions ina Domain- Independent Way -- Information Transfer -- Definition -- Transfer Entropy Estimation -- Interpretation of Transfer Entropy as a Measure at the Algorithmic Level (Or: Why Notions of Information Transferand Causality Are Distinct) -- Local Information Transfer -- Common Problems and Solutions -- Information Storage -- Predictive Information/Excess Entropy -- Active Information Storage -- Interpretation of Information Storage as a Measure at theAlgorithmic Level -- Combining the Analysis of Local Active Information Storageand Local Transfer Entropy -- Application Examples -- Active Information Storage in Neural Data -- Active Information Storage in a Robotic System -- Balance of Information Processing Capabilities Near Criticality -- Conclusion and Outlook -- References.
,
18 Machine Learning and the Questions It Raises -- References -- Index.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 1-107-15053-1
Language:
English
URL:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316584200
Bookmarklink
