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.

 

== Life ==

Then what is life? In my definition, life is an object which contains numerous information. The information includes biological systems and events that one experiences while living. The information is detectable and measurable with proper standards. One simple example of life is human. Human has a large size of information. Not only personal information, but also emotions, health conditions, and experiences are the elements of life as information. They are all detectable and measurable. Biologists research biological things and try to find much data to get information, which is, then, used for their objects.

 

== Universe And Biology ==

In set theory, universal set is a set fixed within the framework of a theory and consisting of all objects considered in this theory.(Fraenkel, A. A. and Bar-Hillel, Y. Foundations of Set Theory. Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1958) Universe is a universal set. In terms of life, the elements of universe are some subsets of information, such as life or environment(complementary set of life). Biology could research not only life but also environment because life and environment is related so tightly. Actually biologists study universe.