In the Beginning Was Information by Werner Gitt Read Free Book Online

by a conceptual construct for which the information may be coded in the form of a program, a technical drawing, or a description, etc. The next step is then to implement the concept. All technological systems as well as all constructed objects, from pins to works of art, have been produced by means of information. None of these artifacts came into existence through some form of self-organization of matter, but all of them were preceded by establishing the required information. We can now conclude that information was present in the beginning, as the title of this book states.
Theorem 3: Information comprises the nonmaterial foundation for all technological systems and for all works of art.
    What is the position in regard to biological systems? Does theorem 3 also hold for such systems, or is there some restriction? If we could successfully formulate the theorems in such a way that they are valid as laws of nature, then they would be universally valid according to the essential characteristics of the laws of nature, N2, N3, and N4.

Chapter 4
     
    The Five Levels of the Information Concept
     
    Figure 9: Egyptian hieroglyphics.
     
    Figure 9 is a picture of icons cut in stone as they appear in the graves of pharaohs and on obelisks of ancient Egypt. The question is whether these pictures represent information or not. So let us check them against the three necessary conditions (NC) for identifying information (discussed in more detail in paragraph 4.2):
NC 1: A number of symbols are required to establish information. This first condition is satisfied because we have various different symbols like an owl, water waves, a mouth, reeds, etc.
NC 2: The sequence of the symbols must be irregular. This condition is also satisfied, as there are no regularities or periodic patterns.
NC 3: The symbols must be written in some recognizable order, such as drawn, printed, chiseled, or engraved in rows, columns, circles, or spirals. In this example, the symbols appear in columns.
    It now seems possible that the given sequence of symbols might comprise information because all three conditions are met, but it could also be possible that the Egyptians simply loved to decorate their monuments. They could have decorated their walls with hieroglyphics, [7] just like we often hang carpets on walls. The true nature of these symbols remained a secret for 15 centuries because nobody could assign meanings to them. This situation changed when one of Napoleon’s men discovered a piece of black basalt near the town of Rosetta on the Nile in July 1799. This flat stone was the size of an ordinary dinner plate and it was exceptional because it contained inscriptions in three languages: 54 lines of Greek, 32 lines of Demotic, and 14 lines of hieroglyphics. The total of 1,419 hieroglyphic symbols includes 166 different ones, and there are 468 Greek words. This stone, known as the Rosetta Stone (Figure 10), is now in the possession of the British Museum in London. It played a key role in the deciphering of hieroglyphics, and its first success was the translation of an Egyptian pictorial text in 1822. [8]
Figure 10: The Rosetta Stone.
    Because the meaning of the entire text was found, it was established that the hieroglyphics really represented information. Today, the meanings of the hieroglyphic symbols are known, and anybody who knows this script is able to translate ancient Egyptian texts. Since the meaning of the codes is known, it is now possible to transcribe English text into hieroglyphics, as is shown in Figure 11, where the corresponding symbols have been produced by means of a computer/plotter system.
Figure 11: A computer printout of some proverbs (in German) translated into hieroglyphics. Translation of the German text: It is better to receive one helping from God, than 5,000 dishonestly. Do not speak evil, then you will be loved by everybody. Take care that you do not rob a distressed person, nor do violence to somebody in poor health.
    This