The idea of information has become increasingly important in our efforts
to understand the nature of biological organization. It is now generally
recognized that information-related ideas play a key role in characterizing
life at every organizational level. Familiar examples of these ideas
include: how DNA codes for specifi c amino-acid sequences, how gene
expression shapes biological development, how chemical signaling
enables the immune system to combat pathogens, and at the cognitive
end of the biological continuum, how populations of neurons represent
features of our environment. But although pervasive, the contribution
that information-related ideas make to our understanding of these processes
is not yet well understood. Indeed, only fairly recently have
researchers begun to explore their deeper theoretical signifi cance.
A similar point can be made about the philosophical and scientifi c
controversies that inevitably arise from our understanding of these information-
dependent biological processes. For example, because organisms
use information to construct, maintain, repair, and replicate themselves,
it would seem only natural to include information-related ideas in our
attempt to understand the general nature of living systems; the causality
by means of which they operate; whether they could exist and evolve in
nonbiological matter; and how, in certain species, they give rise to cognition,
value, and language. But again, philosophers and scientists have
only gradually incorporated information-related ideas in the methodology
they employ to discuss these long-standing scientifi c and philosophical
controversies.