Information, In-formation, n-formations

Abstract

The nature of information has experienced a significant mutation over the past century. The advent of the information sciences and their incorporation into every domain of research has led us to reconfigure our perception of nature and human production. This reconfiguration epitomizes the current convergence of knowledge exemplified in digital architectural research. The architectural environment is now thoroughly infused with digital tools that are the direct products of both information theory and scientific investigation. A study of the various aspects of information leads us to consider these tools as composites of both reductionism and emergencism. The former considers reality in terms of universal laws that regulate nature, while the latter claims that in complex systems, new and entirely unexpected laws may emerge. In this regard, the coupling of inductive and deductive propositions – best demonstrated by the concepts of algorithmic complexity and abstracted networks – represents an essential feature in the construction of comprehensive evolutionary models, where evolution represents a combinatorial set of intensive information.