The formulation of a science of information: an engineering perspective on the natural properties of information

The era of information engineering is characterised both by the triumphant progress of computer technology and by a growing awareness that there are still no generally agreed answers to the simple questions —What is information? Has information natural properties? What are they? Beyond information engineering, it can be observed that the essential function of information in nature is to control and thereby operate the organisation of life. Such organisation is recursively defined so that it integrates operations at every scale: cells, organs and tissues, individual organisms, societies. It is also subject to the disorder arising from physical uncertainty in the molecular control mechanisms of life. It follows that the natural structure and behaviour of sets of symbols used to represent biological information —involving recursively defined order and intrinsic disorder— may offer useful guidance to information systems designers in their selection of strategic objectives, e.g. to reduce the hazards of complex software development (the present world-wide ‘software crisis'), and in their search for new processing models. Scientifically, the analysis of the natural properties of information might provide a conceptual skeleton for the formulation of a science of information.