Living beings as informed systems: towards a physical theory of information

Abstract

I propose here a new concept of information based on two relevant aspects of its expression. The first related to the undeniable fact that the expression of information modifies the physical state of its receiver. The second to the arbitrariness of such physical changes. In fact, these changes are not deducible from physical laws but from a code established arbitrarily. Thus, physical information is proposed here as the capacity of producing arbitrary changes. Once defined physical information from this physical point of view, I deduce some basic properties of informed systems. These properties (renewal, self-reproducing, evolution, diversification) are immediately recognized as the attributes most characteristic of living beings, the only natural informed systems we know. I also propose here a double evaluation of information. The former is an absolute measure of the physical effects of its expression based on Einstein's probability. The second is a functional measure based on the probability that an informed systems attain a given objective as consequence of the expression of its information.