Information processes in wildlife are much more common than it might seem at first glance. Fall foliage is associated with them in the fall, sprouting of flowers in the spring and other common phenomena. The ability to store, transmit and receive information is one of the characteristics of living matter. Without it, normal metabolism, adaptation to environmental conditions, training and so on is impossible. Information processes in inanimate nature also exist, but differ in several features and primarily act as a measure of ordering of the system.
Ubiquitous information
What is information? To date, there are several options for the definition of this term. Each science dealing with information (this includes all sections of knowledge) uses its own understanding. The general definition is rather difficult to deduce. Intuitively, each person understands information as certain information and knowledge about the world around him. In the mathematical sciences, they are supplemented with data obtained by inference and after solving certain problems. In physics, information is a measure of the order of the system, it is the opposite of entropy and is characteristic of any material objects. In philosophy, it is defined as an intangible form of movement.
The properties
According to most formulations, information reduces uncertainty by providing information about the world and helping bring the system into one of many states. This is easy to understand by analyzing the decision making process. A person often cannot make a choice between several behaviors until he receives additional information about the situation. In order for the information to lead to the right decision, it must have a set of characteristics, such as:
- understandability;
- utility;
- fullness;
- objectivity;
- reliability;
- relevance.
Information process concept
All the diverse actions that can be performed with information are called information processes. These include receiving and searching, transferring and copying, organizing and filtering, protection and archiving.
Information processes in wildlife are found literally at every step. Any organism, unicellular or multicellular, constantly receives environmental information that leads to various changes in behavior or the internal environment. Without the collection, processing and storage of information, it is difficult to imagine the vital activity of any creature. The simplest example is human thinking. At its core, it is nothing more than a process of constantly processing information about the environment, the state of the body, as well as information stored in memory, and so on.
Information system
All examples of information processes in nature occur within a particular system. It includes three components:
- transmitter (source);
- receiver (receiver);
- link.
The transmitter can be any organism or environment. For example, the narrowing or expansion of the pupil occurs under the influence of light. The source of information in this process is the space around a person or animal. The recipient in this case will be the retina.
A communication channel is an environment that provides information delivery. In this capacity, a sound or visual wave can act, as well as oscillatory movements of a medium of a different nature.
Key Information Processes
The whole set of actions that can be performed with information is combined into several categories:
- broadcast;
- storage;
- collection;
- treatment.
A computer is an excellent example of the flow of information processes. He receives the data and, processing them, gives the necessary information or changes the system, searches for the necessary facts according to the given criteria, serves as a source or a receiver of information. The prototype of a computer is the human brain. It also constantly interacts with the information flow, but the processes taking place in its depths are many times greater in complexity than those that are characteristic of a machine.
Some nuances of information transfer
As mentioned above, information processes in wildlife occur in a system consisting of a source, channel and receiver. In the process of transmitting data in the form of a set of signals on the channel get to the recipient. Moreover, the physical meaning of the signals is often not identical to the meaning of the message. For the correct interpretation of information, an agreed set of rules and understandings is used. They are necessary for a uniform understanding of the message content at all stages of working with it. These rules include decoding of Morse code and other similar systems, rules for reading road signs, alphabets, and so on.
Using the example of any language, it is easy to notice that the meaning of the information depends not only on the characteristics of the signals, but also on their location. In this case, the meaning of the same transmitted message each time may slightly vary depending on the characteristics of the recipient. If information is transmitted to a person, their interpretation is determined by various factors, from his life experience to the physiological state. In addition, the same message can be transmitted in different ways, using different alphabets, language systems or communication channels. So, you can focus on something with the help of the inscription “Attention!”, The use of red color or several exclamation points.
Noise
The study of information processes includes the study of such a thing as noise. It is believed that if the message does not carry useful information, then it carries noise. Thus, not only information that is absolutely useless from a practical point of view can be determined, but also messages consisting of signals that the receiver is not able to interpret. Noise can also be called data that has lost relevance. That is, any information with time or due to various circumstances can turn into noise. No less likely is the reverse process. For example, an Icelandic text will be useless to a person unfamiliar with it and makes sense if a translator or dictionary appears.
Man and society
Information processes in society do not fundamentally differ from those at other levels of the organization. Storage, transmission and processing of information in society is carried out through special social institutions and mechanisms. One of the functions of society is the translation of knowledge. It is provided by the transmission of information from generation to generation. In a sense, this process is similar to copying hereditary material.
Information processes in society ensure its cohesion. The lack of transfer of accumulated knowledge, including about norms and laws, leads to the division of a single formation into individuals acting only on the basis of biologically established premises.
Storage and handling
In society, as in a separate organism, it is difficult to imagine the transfer of information without storing it. Databases, libraries, archives and museums contain a wealth of information. Often, before transmitting them to students, teachers process information. They classify, filter data, select individual facts according to the training program, and so on.
History knows several fundamental changes associated with the processing of information and led to an ever greater accumulation of knowledge. Such information revolutions include the invention of writing, typography, computer, the discovery of electricity. The invention of computers was the logical consequence of the accumulation of knowledge. A computer is able to accommodate and process huge amounts of information, save them and transmit without loss.
Natural phenomena: examples of information processes
Information coming from the environment, not only people can perceive. Animals and plants, individual cells and microorganisms pick up signals and react to them in one way or another. Fall of leaves in autumn and growth of shoots in spring, adoption of a certain pose by a dog when an opponent approaches, allocation of the necessary substances into the amoeba cytoplasm ... All these wildlife phenomena are examples of changes in the system after information is received.
In the case of plants, the environment becomes a source of information. Information is also transmitted between tissue cells. The fauna is characterized by the exchange of information from individual to individual.
One of the key moments in wildlife is the transmission of hereditary information. In this process, you can isolate the source (DNA and RNA), the alphabet with a set of rules for reading it (genetic code: adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine), the stage of information processing (DNA transcription), and so on.
Cybernetics
The topic "Information Processes" is one of the leading topics in cybernetics. This is the science of management and communication in society, wildlife and technology. The founder of cybernetics is Norbert Wiener. The study of information processes in this science is necessary to understand the characteristics of the management of a particular system. In cybernetics, a controlling and controlled object is distinguished. They communicate through direct and feedback. From the controlling object (for example, a person) signals (information) are sent to the controlled (computer), as a result of which the latter produces some kind of action. Then, through the feedback channel to the manager receives information about the changes.
Cybernetic processes are associated with the vital activity of any living organism. Management principles are at the core of public as well as computer systems. Actually, the concept of cybernetics was born in the process of searching for a common approach to the analysis of the activity of living organisms and various machines and awareness of the similarity of the behavior of society and natural communities.
Thus, information processes in living nature is one of the characteristics of organisms of any level of complexity. They are supplemented by the principles of direct and feedback and contribute to maintaining the constancy of the internal environment and timely response to changes in the world. Information processes in inanimate nature (with the exception of machines created by man) proceed in a single step. An important difference not noted above is that the information transmitted from the source disappears from it. In wildlife and automata such a phenomenon is not observed. In the vast majority of cases, the transmitted information is still stored in the source.
The concept of the information process is used by various sciences. It can be called interdisciplinary. Information theory is applicable today to explain a variety of processes.