Information, the Hidden Side of Life by Gaucherel, Cédric -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Table of Contents Preface Introduction

I.1. We can change the medium without changing the information I.2. Where does information exist? I.3. What is information?

Acknowledgments 1 Human and Animal Communication

1.1. Language, that amazing thing 1.2. The mechanics of language 1.3. What is syntax? 1.4. Meaning 1.5. Beyond meaning 1.6. Non-human languages 1.7. Types of language 1.8. Why give information? 1.9. The autonomy of information 1.10. Language and information

2 Genetic Information

2.1. A central concept in biology 2.2. Epigenetic information 2.3. The environment 2.4. Information: from replication to reproduction 2.5. Mutation and selection 2.6. The story of the message: phylogeny and coalescence 2.7. The point of view of the reading system 2.8. We cannot see the wood for the trees 2.9. The tree and the web … and some complexities there! 2.10. When information and individual can no longer be confused 2.11. Conflicts and levels of integration: avatars 2.12. Sociobiology, altruism and information 2.13. The “all genetics” versus epigenetics 2.14. What is Life?

3 Ecosystem and Information

3.1. An information-centered perspective of the ecosystem 3.2. Reservoirs of ecosystemic information 3.3. Biodiversity: an ecosystem made up of individuals 3.4. Phylogeny of communities: biology in the arena 3.5. The ecosystem: a physical system or a biological system? 3.6. An ecosystem made up of matter and energy 3.7. Failure of the physical approach 3.8. Physics has not said its last word 3.9. The great challenges of ecology 3.10. Flow and balance of ecosystemic information 3.11. Ecosystemic codes 3.12. The languages of the ecosystem

4 Can We Define Information?

4.1. Information as surprise 4.2. Information measured by complexity 4.3. Information as organized complexity 4.4. Information as compression 4.5. Coding and information reading 4.6. Memory

5 Evolution of Information

5.1. In the beginning was structure 5.2. The first languages were ecosystemic 5.3. The replicators and the conservators 5.4. Biological languages 5.5. Information selection 5.6. Messages and languages 5.7. The complexification of codes 5.8. Complexification of languages 5.9. The re-creation of life 5.10. And what about tomorrow?

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