by Werner Gitt
The expression "rejoice" appears in different languages and coding systems in Figure 13. This leads to another important empirical theorem:
Theorem 12: Any given piece of information can be represented by any selected code.
Comment: Theorem 12 does not state that a complete translation is always possible. It is an art to suitably translate and express metaphors, twists of logic, ambiguities, and special figurative styles into the required language.
It is possible to formulate fundamental principles of information even at the relatively low level of codes by means of the above theorems. If, for example, one finds a code underlying any given system, then one can conclude that the system had a mental origin. In the case of the hieroglyphics, nobody suggested that they were caused by a purely physical process like random mechanical effects, wind, or erosion; Theorem 11 is thus validated.
The following is a brief list of some properties common to all coding systems:
– A code is a necessary prerequisite for establishing and storing information.
– Every choice of code must be well thought out beforehand in the conceptual stage.
– Devising a code is a creative mental process.
– Matter can be a carrier of codes, but it cannot generate any codes.
B) The Actual Syntax
Definition 4: The actual syntax describes the construction of sentences and phrases, as well as the structural media required for their formation. The set of possible sentences of a language is defined by means of a formalized or formalizable assemblage of rules. This comprises the morphology, phonetics, and vocabulary of the language.
The following questions are relevant:
a) Concerning the sender:
– Which of the possible combinations of symbols are actual defined words of the language (lexicon and notation)?
– How should the words be arranged (construction of the sentences, word placement, and stylistics), linked with one another, and be inflected to form a sentence (grammar)?
– What language should be used for this information?
– Which special modes of expression are used (stylistics, aesthetics, precision of expression, and formalisms)?
– Are the sentences syntactically correct?
b) Concerning the recipient:
– Does the recipient understand the language? (Understanding the contents is not yet relevant.)
The following two sample sentences illustrate the syntax level once again:
A: The bird singed the song.
B: The green freedom prosecuted the cerebrating house.
Sentence B is perfectly correct syntactically, but it is semantically meaningless. In contrast, the semantics of sentence A is acceptable, but its syntax is erroneous.
By the syntax of a language is meant all the rules which describe how individual language elements could and should be combined. The syntax of natural languages is much more complex (see appendix A2) than that of formal artificial languages. The syntactic rules of an artificial language must be complete and unambiguous because, for example, a compiler program which translates written programs into computer code cannot call the programmer to clarify semantic issues.
Knowledge of the conventions applying to the actual encoding as well as to the allocation of meanings is equally essential for both the sender and the recipient. This knowledge is either transferred directly (e.g., by being introduced into a computer system or by being inherited in the case of natural systems), or it must be learned from scratch (e.g., mother tongue or any other natural language).
No person enters this world with the inherited knowledge of some language or some conceptual system. Knowledge of a language is acquired by learning the applicable vocabulary and grammar as they have been established in the conventions of the language concerned.
4.3 The Third Level of Information: Semantics
When we read the previously mentioned book B, we are not interested in statistics about the letters, neither are we concerned with the actual grammar, but we are interested in the meaning of the contents. Symbol sequences and syntactic rules are essential for the representation of information, but the essential characteristic of the conveyed information is not the selected code, neither is it the size, number, or form of the letters, or the method of transmission (in writing, or as optical, acoustic, electrical, tactile or olfactory signals), but it is the message being conveyed, the conclusions, and the meanings (semantics). This central aspect of information plays no role in storage and transmission, since the cost of a telegram, for example, does not depend on the importance of the message, but only on the number of letters or words. Both the sender and the recipient are mainly interested in the meaning; it is the meaning that changes a sequence of symbols into information. So now we have arrived at the third level of information, the semantic level (Greek semantikós = characteristic, significance, aspect of meaning).
Typical semantic questions are:
a) Concerning the sender:
– What are the thoughts in the sender’s mind?
– What meaning is contained in the information being formulated?
– What information is implied in addition to the explicit information?
– What means are employed for conveying the information (metaphors, idioms, or parables)?
b) Concerning the recipient:
– Does the recipient understand the information?
– What background information is required for understanding the transmitted information?
– Is the message true or false?
– Is the message meaningful?
Theorem 13: Any piece of information has been transmitted by somebody and is meant for somebody. A sender and a recipient are always involved whenever and wherever information is concerned.
Comment: Many kinds of information are directed to one single recipient (like a letter) and others are aimed at very many recipients (e.g., a book, or newspaper). In exceptional cases, the information never reaches the recipient (e.g., a letter lost in the mail).
It is only at the semantic level that we really have meaningful information, thus we may establish the following theorem:
Theorem 14: Any entity, to be accepted as information, must entail semantics; it must be meaningful.
Semantics is an essential aspect of information, because the meaning is the only invariant property. The statistical and syntactical properties can be altered appreciably when information is represented in another language (e.g., translated into Chinese), but the meaning does not change.
Meanings always represent mental concepts, therefore we have:
Theorem 15: When its progress along the chain of transmission events is traced backward, every piece of information leads to a mental source, the mind of the sender.
Sequences of letters generated by various kinds of statistical processes are shown in Figure 38 (appendix A1.5). The programs used for this purpose were partially able to reproduce some of the syntactic properties of the language, but in the light of Theorems 16 and 17 these sequences of letters do not represent information. The next theorem enables one to distinguish between information and non-information:
Theorem 16: If a chain of symbols comprises only a statistical sequence of characters, it does not represent information.
Information is essentially linked to a sender (a mental source of information) according to Theorems 13 and 15. This result is independent of whether the recipient understands the information or not. When researchers studied Egyptian obelisks, the symbols were seen as information long before they were deciphered, because it was obvious that they could not have resulted from random processes. The meaning of the hieroglyphics could not be understood by any contemporaries (recipients) before the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799, but even so, it was regarded as information. The same holds for the gyrations of bees which were only understood by humans after being deciphered by Karl von Frisch. In contrast, the genetic code is still mostly unknown, except for the code allocations between the trip
lets and the amino acids.
All suitable ways of expressing meanings (mental substrates, thoughts, or nonmaterial contents of consciousness) are called languages. Information can be transmitted or stored in material media only when a language is available. The information itself is totally invariant in regard to the transmission system (acoustic, optical, or electrical) as well as the system of storage (brain, book, data processing system, or magnetic tape). This invariance is the result of its nonmaterial nature. There are different kinds of languages:
Natural languages used for communication: at present there are approximately 5,100 living languages on earth.
Artificial communication languages and languages used for signaling: Esperanto, deaf-mute languages, flag codes, and traffic signs.
Formal artificial languages: logical and mathematical calculi, chemical symbols, musical notation, algorithmic languages, programming languages like Ada, Algol, APL, BASIC, C, C++, Fortran, Pascal, and PL/1.
Special technical languages: building and construction plans, block diagrams, diagrams depicting the structure of chemical compounds, and electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic circuit diagrams.
Special languages found in living organisms: genetic languages, bee gyrations, pheromonal languages of various insects, hormonal languages, signaling systems in the webs of spiders, the language of dolphins, and instincts (e.g., the migration routes of birds, salmon, and eels). As is explained in appendix A2, the latter examples should rather be regarded as communication systems.
A common property of all languages is that defined sets of symbols are used, and that definite agreed-upon rules and meanings are allocated to the single signs or language elements. Every language consists of units like morphemes, lexemes, expressions, and entire sentences (in natural languages), that serve as carriers of meaning (formatives). Meanings are internally assigned to the formatives of a language, and both the sender and the recipient should be in accord about these meanings. The following can be employed for encoding meanings in natural languages: morphology, syntax (grammar and stylistics), phonetics, intonation, and gesticulation, as well as numerous other supplementary aids like homonyms, homophones, metaphors, synonyms, polysemes, antonyms, paraphrasing, anomalies, metonymy, and irony, etc.
Every communication process between sender and recipient consists of formulating and understanding the sememes (Greek sema = sign) in one and the same language. In the formulation process, the information to be transmitted is generated in a suitable language in the mind of the sender. In the comprehension process, the symbol combinations are analyzed by the recipient and converted into the corresponding ideas. It is universally accepted that the sender and the recipient are both intelligent beings, or that a particular system must have been created by an intelligent being (Figures 23 and 24, chapter 7).
4.4 The Fourth Level of Information: Pragmatics
Let us again consider book B mentioned initially to help us understand the nature of the next level. There is a Russian saying that "The effect of words can last one hour, but a book serves as a perpetual reminder." Books can have lasting effects. After one has read a software manual, for example, one can use the described system. Many people who read the Bible are moved to act in entirely new ways. In this regard, Blaise Pascal said, "There are enough passages in Scripture to comfort people in all spheres of life, and there are enough passages that can horrify them." Information always leads to some action, although, for our purposes, it is immaterial whether the recipient acts according to the sender’s wishes, responds negatively, or ignores it. It often happens that even a concise but striking promotional slogan for a washing powder can result in a preference for that brand.
Up to the semantic level, the purpose the sender has with the transmitted information is not considered. Every transmission of information indicates that the sender has some purpose in mind for the recipient. In order to achieve the intended result, the sender describes the actions required of the recipient to bring him to implement the desired purpose. We have now reached an entirely new level of information, called pragmatics (Greek pragmatike = the art of doing the right thing; taking action).
Some examples of pragmatic aspects are:[14]
a) Concerning the sender:
– What actions are desired of the recipient?
– Has a specific action been formulated explicitly, or should it be implicit?
– Is the action required by the sender to be taken in only one predetermined way, or is there some degree of freedom?
b) Concerning the recipient:
– To what extent does the received and understood meaning influence the behavior of the recipient?
– What is the actual response of the recipient?
Theorem 17: Information always entails a pragmatic aspect.
The pragmatic aspect could:
– be unnegotiable and unambiguous without any degree of freedom, e.g., a computer program, activities in a cell, or a military command;
– allow a limited freedom of choice, like instinctive acts of animals;
– allow considerable freedom of action (only in the case of human beings).
Note: Even if there is considerable variation in the pragmatics resulting from the semantics, it does not detract anything from the validity of Theorem 17.
When language is used, it does not simply mean that sentences are jumbled together, but that requests, complaints, questions, instructions, teachings, warnings, threats, and commands are formulated to coerce the recipient to take some action. Information was defined by Werner Strombach [S12] as a structure which achieves some result in a receiving system. He thus referred to the important aspect of taking action.
We can distinguish two types of action:
a) Fixed:
– programmed actions (e.g., mechanical manufacturing processes, the operation of data processing programs, construction of biological cells, respiration, blood circulation, and the functioning of organs)
– instinctive acts (behavior of animals)
– trained actions (e.g., police dogs, and circus performances involving lions, elephants, horses, bears, tigers, dogs, seals, dolphins, etc.)
b) Flexible and creative:
– learned activities like social manners and manual skills
– sensible actions (humans)
– intuitive actions (humans)
– intelligent actions based on free will (humans)
All the activities of the recipient can depend on information that has previously been conceptualized by the sender for the intended purpose. On the other hand, intelligent actions that do not derive from a sender are also possible.
A relevant theorem is the following:
Theorem 18: Information is able to cause the recipient to take some action (stimulate, initialize, or implement). This reactive functioning of information is valid for both inanimate systems (e.g., computers or an automatic car wash) as well as living organisms (e.g., activities in cells, actions of animals, and activities of human beings).
4.5 The Fifth Level of Information: Apobetics
We consider book B for the last time to illustrate one further level of information. Goethe once said, "Certain books seem to have been written not so much to enable one to learn something, but to show that the author knew something." This reason for writing a book, which is of course not worth emulating, does, however, express something of fundamental importance: The sender has some purpose for the recipient. The purpose of a promotional slogan is that the manufacturing firm can have a good turnover for the year. In the New Testament, John mentions a completely different purpose for his information: "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). We conclude that some purpose is pursued whenever information is involved.
We now realize that any piece of information has a purpose, and have come to the last and highest level of information, namely apobetics (the teleological aspect, the question of th
e purpose; derived from the Greek apobeinon = result, success, conclusion). The term "apobetics" was introduced by the author in 1981 [G4] to conform to the titles of the other four levels. For every result on the side of the recipient there is a corresponding conceptual purpose, plan, or representation in the mind of the sender. The teleological aspect of information is the most important, because it concerns the premeditated purpose of the sender. Any piece of information involves the question: "Why does the sender communicate this information, and what result does he want to achieve for or in the recipient?" The following examples should elucidate this aspect:
– The male bird calls a mate by means of his song, or he establishes his territory.
– Computer programs are written with a purpose (e.g., solution a set of equations, inversion of matrices, or to manipulate some system).
– The manufacturer of chocolate A uses a promotional slogan to the recipient to buy his brand.
– The Creator gave gregarious insects a pheromonal language for the purpose of communication, for example to identify intruders or indicate the location of a new source of food.
– Man was gifted with a natural language; this can be used for communicating with other people, and to formulate purposes.
– God gives us a purpose in life through the Bible; this is discussed more fully in Part 3 of this book.
Examples of questions concerning apobetics, are:
a) Concerning the sender:
– Has an unambiguous purpose been defined?
– What purpose is intended for the recipient?
– Can this purpose be recognized directly, or could it only be deduced indirectly?
b) Concerning the recipient:
– What purpose is achieved through the actions of the recipient?
– Does the result obtained in the recipient correspond to the purpose which the sender had in mind?