1st Essay : Review of Information, Universe, Life and Biology

 

== Introduction ==

“What is life, information, and the universe?” When I saw this question from syllabus, what I thought was that life and universe is a set of information because, in biology, we study life through information transmission, analysis and ways to obtain them. Life is full of information which is either well known or unknown, so we should contemplate the definition of information before handling life and universe.

 

== Meaning of Information : Processed Data ==

According to Russel Ackoff<ref>Ackoff, R. L. (1999) Ackoff’s Best. New York: John Wiley & Sons, pp 170 – 172</ref>, information is a set of processed data that increase its usefulness. Data are symbols that represent the properties of objects and events. Data have qualitative or quantitative values related with objects and events which are observed by observers. Information consists of processed data, the processing directed at increasing its usefulness. Therefore we could take advantage of information rather than data.