Fabricated Devices

Abstract

Given the vast array of fabricated devices that perform information-related tasks in our culture, it is no wonder that the biological aspects of information often get overlooked. Virtually all of the fabricated devices that have ever been invented represent ways of extending our biological abilities for detecting, processing, or responding to meaningful information. But they are unable to do any of this on their own, apart from some form of human intervention. They are also unable to process emotional information, so they have no appreciation of what they are doing or why they are doing it. Information Theory is not really a theory about information, at least not the meaningful kind that helps regulate living entities. It deals with the capacity of a system to transmit information, rather than the meaning of the information being transmitted, which is why attempts to apply it in biology have not been particularly fruitful.