Abstract
The general theory of information, which includes syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and many other special theories of information, provides theoretical and practical tools for discerning a very large diversity of different kinds, types, and classes of information. Some of these kinds, types, and classes are more important and some are less important. Two basic classes are formed by structural and symbolic information. While structural information is intrinsically imbedded in the structure of the corresponding object or domain, symbolic information is represented by symbols, the meaning of which is subject to arbitrary conventions between people. As a result, symbolic information exists only in the context of life, including technical and theoretical constructs created by humans. Structural information is related to any objects, systems, and processes regardless of the existence or presence of life. In this paper, properties of structural and symbolic information are explored in the formal framework of the general theory of information developed by Burgin because this theory offers more powerful instruments for this inquiry. Structural information is further differentiated into inherent, descriptive, and constructive types. Properties of correctness and uniqueness of these types are investigated. In addition, predictive power of symbolic information accumulated in the course of natural evolution is considered. The phenomenon of ritualization is described as a general transition process from structural to symbolic information.
Highlights
Everything has its structure, and according to the contemporary approach in methodology of science, scientists discover structure, rather than the essence and nature of the studied phenomena
The main distinction between structural and symbolic information is that the meaning of structural information is inseparably bound to its physical structure, while symbolic information is free insofar as arbitrary symbols may take over one and the same role in the information processing system
If there were a perpetuum mobile of the fourth kind that does nothing but generate useful symbolic information without input of structural information, a great deal of money could be saved which is currently spent on satellites, particle accelerators, or geological drilling
Summary
Everything has its structure, and according to the contemporary approach in methodology of science, scientists discover structure, rather than the essence and nature of the studied phenomena (cf., for example, [1,2,3]). The examples above demonstrate, as in the case of light received from a distant source, that the truth of information carried by a light beam is related to the structure of the source, to the structure of the light itself as the transmission medium, as well as to the structure or structural change of the receiver All these elements represent certain forms of structural information that are physically converted from one into another during the information transfer process. The concept of the infological system plays the role of a free parameter in the general theory of information, providing for representation of different kinds and types of information in this theory. Knowledge, data, images, algorithms, procedures, scenarios, ideas, values, goals, ideals, fantasies, abstractions, beliefs, and similar objects are standard examples of infological elements Note that all these elements are structures and not physical things. One and the same carrier C can contain different portions of information for one and the same system R
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