Home
Nonverbal Dictionary
Adam's-Apple-Jump
Amphibian Brain
Isopraxism
Nonverbal Brain
Nonverbal World
Zygomatic Smile
Publications
   
 



ON THE ORIGIN OF INFORMATION AND ITS COMMUNICATION APART FROM WORDS

By David B. Givens

August 15, 2018


ABSTRACT


This paper explores the origin and evolution of information, and explains its relationship to matter and energy. Information provides the blueprint for life on Earth. It was preceded by matter and energy. Particulate matter (particles) provided the building blocks of life. Energy (forces) provided the glue. Phase One marks the arrival of information in the Space-time Continuum, shortly after matter and energy were created, with photons communicating their physical presence to recipient electrons. In Phase Two, molecular information appeared on Earth as coded instructions for periodically replicating the code forward in time. The fragility of coded RNA and DNA information was such that the genetic code ensconsed itself and took refuge in cellular (lipid bilayer) containers, referred to in this article as hosts. Hosts wear out and need to be replaced, while genetic information is arguably immortal. In Phase Three, the hosts--from archaic bacteria to modern human beings--developed specialized organs for receiving information from the external environment, and for sending messages through space-time, host to host. In all three Phases, information was channeled principally through the electromagnetic force. Plant and animal hosts later developed specialized organs to sense the gravitational force. A proposed Phase Four is suggested, in which electromagnetic information programmed into smart machines enables mechanical self-reproduction to take precedence over human beings.

_______________________________________________________________________________


INTRODUCTION


Information is the resolution of uncertainty. --Claude Shannon


First there was energy. Second came matter. And third came information. This article explores the evolution of information and its links to matter and energy.

Information consists of announcements, instructions, or knowledge sent as a signal from a source to a recipient that affects the latter's behavior, growth, perceptions, or understanding.

Information is a relationship between a receiver and a message transmitted through an energetic (e.g., electromagnetic) or material (e.g., air or water) channel. Recipients respond to information as a form of knowledge. Though surrounded by unlimited matter and energy resources, the latter are not information unless and until received by a recipient. Thus, information is considerably scarcer than matter or energy.

Information, as defined by The Nonverbal Dictionary (Givens 1997-2018), consists of knowledge, facts, and data derived from communication. It includes answers to questions (i.e., the resolution of uncertainty). As Norbert Wiener (1948, p. 155) observed, information fundamentally differs from matter or energy. Information may be sent and received by means of signs, signals, and cues.

Information may pertain to physical presence ("I am here"), assemblage (e.g., building a house), instructions (e.g., for replicating a cell), directions (e.g., for driving to Spokane), or spatial location (e.g., for finding Spokane). Analogous to antimatter is the concept of "anti-information," as in distraction, deception, and lying (as, e.g., in U.S. presidential politics).

As I indicated in 1982, "It is useful to distinguish at the outset between a sign vehicle: the material carrier or physical substratum of a sign, the tangible 'sign stuff' (i.e., its actual stone, clay, metal, [molecular,] glass, paper, or concrete substance), and a sign form: the pattern or arrangement of lines, scratches, punctures, [codones,] meanders, shapes, etc., which can appear on [or within] varied vehicles. The sign form of ancient Scandinavian runes, for instance, comprises the runic characters themselves. Runic sign vehicles, on the other hand, can consist variously of stone, wood, and paper materials" (Givens 1982, p. 161 [italics, and comments within brackets, added]).

First Signs. The first informational signs precede life, and date back 13.8 billion years to the beginning of the universe. Specifically, they consist of photons emitted by individual electrons to communicate presence ("I am here") to fellow electrons. Upon receipt of a photon message, a recipient electron would divert its course to avoid collision with the sender. Photon communication may be the primordial model for all subsequent nonverbal communication, from bacterial quorum sensing to the human smile.

Words evolved from what we can sense (see, hear, smell, and touch), and don't work well for "particles" and "forces" we cannot detect through our senses. (To view my article on the origin of words, please click HERE.)


____________________________________________________________________________________

TABLE 1: Signs, Signals, and Cues


Sign. 1. From Latin signum ("identifying mark"), something that "suggests the presence or existence of a fact, condition, or quality" (Soukanov 1992, p. 1678). 2. In philosophy, as defined by Charles S. Peirce, "a sign stands for something else" (Flew 1979, p. 327; e.g., the hand is a sign of humanity). 3. The general term for anything that communicates, transmits, or carries information.

Signal. 1. From Latin signalis ("sign"), an "indicator, such as a gesture or colored light, that serves as a means of communication" (Soukhanov 1992, p. 1678). 2. In biology, "any behavior that conveys information from one individual to another, regardless of whether it serves other functions as well" (Wilson 1975, p. 595). 3. Any type of sign used to inform as to what may happen next (e.g., a hand-behind-head gesture signals that a listener may argue with a speaker's point of view).

Cue. 1. A nonverbal sign used to prompt an event, behavior, or experience. 2. In psychology, a stimulus, consciously or unconsciously perceived, which elicits a type of behavior (e.g., a soft touch may prompt a hug or a kiss).

_______________________________________________________________________________


_______________________________________________________________________________

TABLE 2: Timeline for the Evolution of Information


0. Before The Big Bang--?

UNKNOWN

Did information exist before the Big Bang origin of the universe? At this point, the answer is unknown.

1. Before Information--Big Bang (13.8 bya [billion years ago])

ENERGY

At the beginning of the Big Bang there was only energy. Neither matter nor information existed.

2. Before Information--Grand Unification Epoch (13.8 bya)

ENERGY, MATTER (particles)

Milliseconds after the Big Bang, matter (particles) formed. Still no information existed.

3. Before Information--Inflationary Epoch (13.8 bya)

SPACE (expansion)

Space begins--and continues today--to expand in size.

4. Before Information--Quark-gluon Soup (13.8 bya)

ENERGY, MATTER

There are now four elementary energetic forces: gravitation, the weak force, the strong force, and electromagnetism.

5. Origin of Information--Electron-photon Communication--“I am here” (13.8 bya)

ENERGY, MATTER, INFORMATION

Electromagnetic information is now communicated between electrons and photons. This is the fundamental model for all later communication. The main message of the communication is about presence, "I am here."

6. After Information--Replication via DNA Polymer (3.7 bya)

LIFE

RNA and DNA molecules encode information about how to reproduce. Reproduction becomes a dominant force, joining the four physical forces--gravitation, weak, strong, and electromagnetic--as a fundamental force itself to be reckoned with. The reproductive force remains a potent motivator in humans today, in overall demeanor, goals, clothing, automobiles, music, media, art, religion, hairdos, shoes, prom dresses, and diverse additional nonverbal signs, signals, and cues.

7. After Information--Cell Membrane--Lipid Bilayer (3.7 bya)

CONTAINERS, CELLS

Protectively enclosed in containers, DNA and life prosper. The containers have protein gates that selectively allow matter to enter and leave the inner space defined by the barrier. Homes, automobiles, RVs, garages, tents, bedrooms, and offices are important compartments for human beings today.

8. After Information--Quorum Sensing--”I am here” (3.7 billion years ago)

COMMUNICATION (cell to cell)

Autoinducing peptides or homo serine lactones are the messaging molecules. They are decoded by specialized receptors.

9. After Information--Multicellular Life (3.7 bya)

PLANTS, ANIMALS

Plants share information through chemical, visual, and olfactory signals. Animals communicate via chemical, electromagnetic, and sensory signs. A great deal of information conveyed by life forms is about physical presence: "I am here."

Land plants (450 mya) share a great deal of information with each other. ". . . land plant genomes are characterized by genes encoding novel biochemical pathways, new phytohormone signaling pathways (notably auxin), expanded repertoires of signaling pathways, and increased diversity in some transcription factor families" (Bowman et al. 2017, p. 287 [italics added]).

10. After Information--Free-swimming Larvae--Communication via Autoinducer

VERTEBRATES

Vertebrates (500 mya) evolved from free-swimming larvae of attached filter feeders. Navigational information becomes a key factor in communication.

11. After Information--Homo sapiens (200,000 years ago to present day)

WE THE PEOPLE

Organizational communication and the complexity of information evolve.

12. After Information--Humans & Androids (10,000 years in the future)

HUMANDROIDS

Needing neither food nor water, but only electromagnetic energy to survive, programmed smart machines take precedence over human beings.

13. What ultimately Happens to Information?

UNKNOWN

_______________________________________________________________________________


THE ORIGIN OF INFORMATION


0. Before The Big Bang--?

UNKNOWN

0.1. Did information exist before the Big Bang origin of the universe? At this point, the answer is unknown. There is speculation that a pre-existing universe or multiverse sparked the Big Bang. If true, it is unlikely that information passed from any earlier universe to our own.

1. Before Information--Big Bang (13.8 bya [billion years ago] - 10 to minus 43 seconds)

1.1. The singularity that erupted in the Big Bang contained energy, but neither matter nor information.

1.2. At Zero Time--13.799 +/- 0.021 billion years ago--conditions were unlikely, or impossible, to favor the presence of information. The beginning of time (t = 0). Size = zero. Maximum (infinite?) density, temperature, space-time curvature.

2. Before Information--Grand Unification Epoch (13.8 bya - 10 to minus 43 to minus 36 seconds after the Big Bang)

ENERGY, MATTER (particles)

2.1. Milliseconds after the Big Bang, matter (particles) formed. Still no information existed.

2.1.1. Quarks and gluons. Elementary particles called "quarks" formed. Quarks later combined to form protons and neutrons. Elementary particles called "gluons" provided the strong binding force that kept each proton and individual neutron cohesively together.

2.2. Sticky particles. You are probably familiar with the look, feel, and rather dormant, inert behavior of beach-sand particles. Atomic particles are far smaller, untouchable, and invisible to the naked eye. In contrast to beach sand, the latter particles are also active, attractive, and "gregarious." They may interactively mingle. Moreover, they may bond together to create increasingly complex atomic and molecular particles. The physical structure of matter, it seems, is inherently amenable--possibly even designed--to be communicative.

2.3. Should our task be to design a particle of matter from scratch, would we even consider adding an electron to it? Consider the actual design of a single atom of hydrogen (H). If the atom were the size of a football or soccer stadium, its proton, the size of a pea, would lie in the middle of the field, while its electron would orbit about the farthest seats above. Who could imagine such an unlikely design, a molecule with more force that particle. . . ?

3. Before Information--Inflationary Epoch (13.8 bya - 10 to minus 36 to 10 to between minus 33 and 32 seconds after)

SPACE (expansion)

3.1. Space begins--and continues today--to expand in size. The expansion appears to be increasing. There may be limits to how far information can travel in space.

3.2. Space and time are interconnected. The Space-time Continuum is analogical, not digital. Assigning numbers to space and time functionally digitizes them, enabling mathematical equations to be used as heuristic devices. When equations become explanatory ends in themselves, however, they divert our attention from analogic properties of matter, energy, and information.

3.3. Three examples of attempts to communicate information through deep space and deep time: (1) Frank Drake's Arecibo message, (2) Frank Drake and Carl Sagan's Pioneer 10 & 11 spacecraft plaques, and (3) David Givens Team's WIPP markers.

4. Before Information--Quark-gluon Soup (13.8 bya - 10 to minus 12 seconds after)

4.1. Messenger particles carry forces between other particles involved in the electromagnetic, strong, and weak forces. Messenger particles are bundles of energy or quanta. That quanta can only exist at certain specific energy levels is what makes matter stable. Who could have invented matter with such an idiosyncratic structure? The exotic quantum structure of matter has major implications for the transmission of information through space and time.

4.2. Niels Bohr floats the hypothesis that electrons occupy discrete, quantum-level orbits around a proton core. It is an as yet unproven guess, but matter does seem to behave as if his hypothesis were true. It does permit digital mathematics to be used as a tool, even though reality would seem to be more analog (continuous) in structure than digital (discrete). We will explore implications for the evolution of information . . .

5. Origin of Information--Electron-photon Communication--“I am here” (13.8 bya - 10 to 1 second after)

5.1. The first information was sent and received by fundamental subatomic particles some 13.8 billion years ago. Specifically, electrons communicated with individual electrons by means of an emitted photon, warning each other, e.g., to avoid collision by changing course (see Krauss 2017). The essential meaning was "I am here." It was established early on that electrons should send and receive such photon warning messages. This extremely early proto-signaling may have set the stage for later communication in the life and languages of Homo.

5.2. Carry the information: ". . . researchers at Princeton University have built a device in which a single electron can pass its quantum information to a particle of light. The particle of light, or photon, can then act as a messenger to carry the information to other electrons. . ." (Zandonella 2016 [writing about an article by Mi et al. 2016]).

5.2.1. Photons: "Light is made up of little indivisible packets of energy, or particles, known as photons. A defining property of photons is that they are non-interacting, they simply pass through each other totally unaffected. [New paragraph:] In the context of quantum communication, this is a very useful feature, as it ultimately enables low-loss transmission of optically encoded data over very large distances" ("Picking One Photon Out of the Flow," Science Daily, May 3, 2018).

5.2.2. Electromagnetic force: "The electromagnetic force operates between particles which contain electric charge. The force carrier for the electromagnetic force is the photon. Photons, which are commonly called light waves, and referred to as gamma rays, X-rays, visible light, radio waves, and other names depending on their energy. Photons have no mass, which means that, according to the previous calculation, there is no limit on the distance of effect of the electromagnetic force. Photons also have no electric charge, no color, no strangeness, charm, topness, or bottomness, but do possess a spin of 1" (Duke University Physics Education Project [phy.duke.edu/~kolena/modern/forces.html (accessed May 27, 2018)]).

5.2.3. Macromolecules. Ch. 4: "From Energy [photons] to Bonds [bivalent electrons] to Molecular [macromolecular] Information" (Loewenstein 1999). ". . . the information circle becomes the unit of life" (p. xvi). Macromolecules carry information.

5.3. Spooky information at a distance. Can information travel faster than the speed of light? There is growing evidence from physics research on particle entanglement that entangled photons may communicate across light years of space instantly, unencumbered by Albert Einstein's iight-speed limit. Research on Einstein's "spooky action at a distance" is ongoing.

5.4. Semantic implication. The information channel is mainly electromagnetic. Information itself is carried by particles and forces.

5.5. Semantic implication. I introduce the "luxeme," a minimal meaningful unit of information. Analogous to the linguistic morpheme, a minimal meaningful unit of sound.

6. After Information--Replication via DNA Polymer (3.7 bya)

LIFE

6.1. RNA and DNA molecules encode information (via codons) about how to reproduce themselves. Reproduction became a dominant force, joining the four physical forces--gravitation, weak, strong, and electromagnetic--as a fundamental force to be reckoned with. The reproductive force remains a potent motivator in humans today, in their overall demeanor, goals, clothing, automobiles, music, media, art, religion, hairdos, shoes, prom dresses, and diverse additional nonverbal signs, signals, and cues.

6.2. In service to the reproductive force, American prom dresses evolved in the early 20th Century to broadcast information about physical presence ("I am here") and gender ("I am female") for purposes of courtship.

6.3. Life began 3.8 billion years ago. Afterward, DNA originated from RNA structures of the RNA/Protein World. Once life began, and to the present day, life's main purpose was--and is--to recreate itself. Molecular information was, and is, the key to this goal.

6.3.1. Energy source. Diverse external energy sources--including radiation, lightning, and geothermal heat--have been proposed to have sparked the origin of life on Earth. But the energy may have been internal rather than external, consisting of electromagnetic forces within molecules (bivalent electron bonds). (See above, 5.2.2 Electromagnetic force and 5.2.3. Macromolecules.)

6.3.2. Organic molecules. That organic molecules--the building blocks of life--form easily and abundantly is evidenced by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are found in comets and meteorites, in our solar system and galaxy, and in other galactic systems in the Cosmos. Consisting of carbon and hydrogen atoms, PAH molecules form easily due to their natural affinity for one another.

6.3.2.1. Interactive mingle. Again, atomic particles may interactively mingle. They may bond together to create increasingly complex molecular particles. To reiterate from section 2.2. (Sticky particles) above: The physical structure of matter, it seems, is inherently amenable--possibly even designed--to be communicative.

6.3.2.2. Carbon. Carbon atoms are particularly gregarious and "sticky," and very well suited to the formation of organic macromolecules. Four of their six constituent electrons are available for covalent bonding with other atoms, such as hydrogen and oxygen. The 6th most abundant element in the universe, carbon forms very stable electrostatic bonds.

6.3.2.3. Ligands. "Ligand" derives from Latin "to bind." Ligands are relatively small messaging molecules consisting of ions, molecules, and molecular groups. They change the information content of those usually larger messaging molecules to which they bind.

6.3.2.3.1. Cell signaling. "A central goal in the cell-signaling field is to understand how a multitude of related ligands can achieve context-specific outcomes using just a few core signal transduction pathways" (Peterson and O'Connor 2018).

6.3.3. In the hypothetical RNA World, coded information was used for molecular particles to recreate themselves as particulate, proto-life forms. Code units consisted of codons (messenger RNA molecules) and anticodons (transfer RNA molecules). Information was sent via molecular relay to ribosomes (ribosomal RNA). In this complex information system, the message was the molecule.

6.3.4. Reading frame. Reading the information available in mRNA involves a process of orchestrating the interaction of several different communicating molecules. Chief among these are mRNA, tRNA, ribosomal, and amino-acid molecules.

6.4. Life as we know it is competitive. Life forms feed upon one another as do predators and prey. They must compete for available energy. But given the abundance of energy in the universe, why should competition be required? The answer is that, despite the seeming ("infinite"?) abundance of energy in the universe as a whole, the energy reserves of our solar system are limited and finite.

7. After Information--Cell Membrane--Lipid Bilayer (3.7 bya)

CONTAINERS, CELLS

7.1.0. Life is also fragile. Early on, life found a way to compartmentalize itself. Before RNA, the chemical structure of water (H20), and of fatty-acid, particles--and their electromagnetically attracting forces--combined to form membranous proto-cells.

7.1.1. Bubbles form between gasses and liquids due to the electromagnetic forces of particle adhesion and cohesion. Biofilms are adhesive conglomerates of microorganism particles within a slimy, extracellular matrix. Composed of lipid bilayers, cell membranes surround and contain the contents of cells, and mediate the information they send and receive from other cells and the outer world. Efferent and afferent information is mediated by embedded, transmembrane protein receptors.

7.1.2. Whole other language. ". . . we now are recognizing that there's a tremendous amount of inter-organelle contact-mediated trafficking of lipids and small molecules, of calcium, et cetera, and it's a whole other language that the cell is signaling, that we haven't understood" (Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, quoted in Kruger 2018, p. 1557).

7.2. In life there are mechanical, chemical, and predatory threats to contend with every day. Early life forms that managed to protect themselves within physical containers had an advantage over those that did not. Information--in the form of coded RNA, and subsequently DNA, instructions--enabled life to reside inside of physically protective containers.

7.3. Among the earliest containers were lipid bilayers. Lipids (fats) consist of complex fatty-acid molecules that attract each other and spontaneously form a double layer of particles that bond together in proto-cellular and in subsequent cellular membranes. The most common molecular particles forming cellular membranes are phospholipids.

7.4. Among liquid water (H2O) molecules, as in early seawater, lipid molecules formed bilayers as they arranged so that their head ends were attracted to water molecules. Meanwhile, their tail ends avoided contact with water. Bilayer sheets formed as the tail ends of lipid molecules conveniently and spontaneously aligned to avoid water molecules, while the head ends, drawn by attracting electromagnetic forces, aligned to engage with the molecules of H2O.

7.5. Containers preceded life. Early bilayers served as electrostatic supporting-scaffold surfaces to assist in RNA assembly. Subsequently, DNA helped life forms create better containers. Containerized, life had better access to limited energy sources (see 6.2., above), and was better able to reproduce.

7.5.1. Hosts. In this article I refer to containers as "hosts." In biology a host is an animal or plant in which or upon another organism lives. Hosts--from archaic bacteria to modern human beings--eventually wear out and need to be replaced. Meanwhile, genetic information itself is arguably immortal.

7.5.2. Redundancy of hosts. Redundancy is "Repetition of parts or all of a message to circumvent transmission errors" (Soukhanov 1992, p. 1515). The hosts of a given species are redundantly numerous to promote genetic transmission. A case in point is the abundance of maple-tree "helicopter" seeds.

8. After Information--Quorum Sensing--”I am here” (3.7 billion years ago)

COMMUNICATION (cell to cell)

8.1. Before neurons or brains existed, it was established that organisms should communicate through messaging molecules about matters of reproductive function. Known as oligopeptides, such molecules were used for intercellular quorum sensing. In living bacteria (e.g., Escherichia coli), Niu and colleagues characterize quorum sensing as a form of sophisticated linguistic-like communication involved in bacterial reproduction (Niu et al. 2013). Today the oligopeptide neurotensin is found in human-brain circuits, including those of prefrontal cortex, Broca’s area, and parts of the limbic system (St-Gelais et al. 2006). The fundamental meaning of early chemical messages was about physical presence: “I am here.”

8.2. I am here. From the beginning of life, intra-species communication has served a reproductive function. In cyanobacteria, individual organisms emitted chemical signals to announce physical presence--saying, essentially, “I am here”--to fellow bacteria in the community. Emitted messaging molecules (e.g., acyl-homoserine lactones) were not addressed to any one bacterium in particular, but rather to bacteria in the stromatolite community as a whole. Nor did individual bacteria respond back directly to any one sender. Instead, the entire group responded collectively to the census-like messages about population density through quorum sensing. Based on the overall volume of chemical “I am here” signals received, the stromatolite community--as an aggregate--enacted changes to its reproductive growth (Freestone 2013) and gene expression (Miller & Bassler 2001).

8.3. In cyanobacteria and other organisms, “I am here” messages are in keeping with the basic biology of species recognition. Recognition of one’s own species members serves a reproductive function, in that conspecifics must somehow recognize one another as potential reproductive partners (Ridley 2004).

8.4. Polar opposites in cells. How epithelial cells use electrochemical information to properly align. "Certain direction-sensing proteins push each other apart (interact negatively) when found within the same cell but attract each other (interact positively) when found in adjacent cells. . ." (p. 70). See Adler, Paul N. and Jeremy Nathans (2016). “The Cellular Compass.” Scientific American (March), pp. 66-71.

9. After Information--Multicellular Life (3.7 bya)

PLANTS, ANIMALS

9.1. Proto-multicellular life arose some 3.7 bya with colonial cyanobacteria. The first multicellular life forms may have been sponges (phylum Porifera, 600 mya). The first multicellular life forms with nervous systems were jellyfish (phylum Coelenterata, 500 mya). Coordination of individual parts required greater levels of emitted and received information. Reproduction became ever more invested in the transmission of coded information.

9.1.1. Sex evolved 1.2 billion years ago. It is unclear precisely why . . .

9.1.2. Diverse life forms evolved to propagate the DNA- and RNA-code units. As life forms gradually changed over millions of years, the code units themselves never changed. The main purpose of life was, it seems--and still is--to carry the code units ahead in time. . . .

9.2. Information receptors. Many plants and animals pick up information about the elementary force of gravity through sensory gravitron receptors called, respectively, statocytes and statocists. This information activates growth hormones in plants, such as trees, e.g., to orient trunks upward, and roots downward, in relation to gravity. Information about the electromagnetic force of light (phototropism via photons) is picked up in plants by photoreceptive sensory organs, enabling tropic movements.

9.2.1. A leaf can send a hormonal signal to a stem's meristem to form a flower bud. Plants emit information through terpenoids (as in, e.g., eucalyptus and cinnamon), green leaf volatiles (mowed lawn, turnip), and benzenoids (aromatic compounds) (petunia, loquat). In tomatoes, a peptide-hormonal messaging molecule called systemin activates defensive genes.

9.2.2. "Plants possess multiple photoreceptors that are able to detect distinct properties of light, including wavelength or quality, intensity, direction, and duration or photoperiod, and use this information to cope with diverse light conditions in the external environment" (Oh 2017, p. 1254).

9.2.3. Semantic implications. Polar auxin transport through plant cells.

9.3. Neurons. Neurons are specialized bodily cells that send, receive, and store electrochemical information by means of electromagnetic signals. The first neurons appeared in the nerve nets of early jellyfish and worms.

9.3.1. Voltage-gated channels. Neurons likely evolved in multicellular animals from early cell membrane voltage-gated channels (Kristan 2016). (Kristan, William B., Jr. [2016]. "Early Evolution of Neurons." Current Biology Magazine 26, October 24, pp. R949-R954.)

9.3.2. Neurexins. In mammals, neurexins are membrane molecular particles (cell adhesion proteins) localized in synapses (Sudhof 2017, p. 749). As surface message-recognition particles, they precede the synapse itself and, via chemical information, guide its formation. The particles' role in information is more analogic than digital (Sudhof 2017, p. 749).

9.4. In multicellular animals, the reproductive force (see above, 6.1.) expresses itself in courtship. Courtship is a process in which messages encoding information about physical presence and contact readiness are sent and received by members of a species for the purpose of replication. Courtship may be acoustic (e.g., birdsong), olfactory (e.g., Chanel No. 5), bioluminescent (firefly flashes, fireworks), tactile (mutual grooming, caressing), gustatory (fruit-fly "taste" pheromones, Belgian chocolates), vestibular (gentle rocking, Venetian gondola rides), and/or visual (smiling, prom dresses).

9.4.1. Insect information. The dancelike body language of honeybees encodes information about the location, distance, quality, and quantity of food items in the environment.

10. After Information--Attached Filter Feeders (355 mya)

SESSILE FILTER FEEDERS

10.1. Sea squirts. Sea squirts are tunicates (phylum Chordata, subphylum Tunicata). It is thought that the larval, tadpole-like form of tunicates gave rise to vertebrates. The larval form has a brain and a light-sensitive spot on its leading head end. Colonial sea squirts send and receive bioluminescent warning messages.

11. After Information--Free-swimming Larvae Evolved as Vertebrates--Communication via Autoinducer

VERTEBRATES

11.1. The original design of the vertebrate central nervous system, consisting of neurons (see above, 9.3) was established ca. 500 mya in the sea. Collectively, it consists of those primeval parts of the brain and spinal cord which arose in the jawless fishes. Specifically, it involves those circuits, nuclei, and modules of the spinal cord, hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain which evolved in ancient oceans. Information is processed--encoded (sent) and decoded (received)--by these parts of the vertebrate central nervous system.

11.2. Many of humankind's informational gestures, postures, and bodily responses originated in paleocircuits of the vertebrate's aquatic brain and spinal cord. Though our nervous system has greatly evolved, paleocircuits for smell-related cues (e.g., disgust), touch (e.g., tactile withdrawal), locomotion (e.g., for the rhythmic, alternating movements of walking), and chemical arousal (as evident, e.g., in the fight-or-flight response) remain functionally the same today.

11.3. Fish. Like life itself, nonverbal communication evolved in the sea. The first Ordovician cues given and received 500 mya targeted receptors for touch and smell in our remote oceanic ancestors. Deep in the aquatic brain and spinal cord of the jawless fishes, neural circuits evolved which process many of the informational signs we send and receive today. Spinal and cranial nerves, e.g., continue to link sensory input with motor response in programming the outflow of nonverbal cues:

11.3.1. Neuromast. The most primitive, specialized tactile-sense organ in vertebrates is the neuromast, a fluid-filled pit in the skin of today's fishes, which picks up vibrational, thermal, electrical, and (perhaps) chemical information from the surrounding water. Each neuromast contains a hair cell, which, when moved by water currents generated by a nearby fish, e.g., stimulates a sensory nerve. Through the neuromast, the current becomes an informational sign of another fish's physical presence (viz., "I am here.").

11.4. Amphibians. With amphibians, the nervous system adapted to pick up better acoustic and visual information than available to circuits the Aquatic Brain. Sudden movements, looming objects, and bright lights trigger midbrain vision centers which reflexively orient faces and eyes to novel or dangerous stimuli. Midbrain hearing centers alerted to abrupt informational changes in sound. As amphibian ancestors emerged from primeval lakes and seas to live part of their lives on land, both seeing and hearing sharpened. Two paired centers of the amphibian midbrain--the inferior and superior colliculi--evolved as processing stations for audiovisual information. The former's hearing centers (the auditory lobes) unconsciously prompt vertebrates to crouch from loud noises. The latter's vision centers (the optic lobes) reflexively collected information pertaining to body motions and objects that moved.

11.4.1. "When the first amphibia left the Silurian seas two or three hundred million years ago, with their heads resting on the ground, they relied entirely on bone conduction of vibration for hearing. The vibrations in the earth were transmitted from the bones of their lower jaws to the bone surrounding the inner ear. In order to hear, they probably kept their lower jaws touching the ground" (Nathan 1988, p. 34).

11.5. Auditory information is received, as vibrations, by specialized hair cells in the inner ear's cochlea. There, the vibrations are transformed (as electrical signals) in the auditory nerve, which links to auditory modules of the midbrain (the inferior colliculi) and the forebrain's primary auditory cortex.

11.6. Reptiles. Reptiles retained the amphibian ability to decode information encoded in colors. Living reptiles are able to encode and decode information about dominance and submission via changes in bodily posture and movements, such as the high-stand display and mouth-gaping.

11.7. Mammals. Mammals gained an Increased ability to pick up olfactory information. Neural development of the olfactory brain (limbic system) enabled information about emotions to be sent and received.

11.8. Primates. Able to detect information about color, which had been lost in the early mammals' nocturnal life in protection from day-living reptiles. Grasping fingers and hands better able than mammalian forelimbs to derive tactile information from material objects. Tactile sensory area of primate cerebral cortex greatly improved as well.

11.9. Anthropoids. With anthropoid apes comes a greater ability to pick up facial information pertaining to emotions. By 35-to-40 mya in the earliest apes, the primate brain dedicated distinct modules of visual cortex to the recognition of faces. (In the living apes, dedicated nerve cells of the lower temporal lobe respond to hands and faces exclusively [see, e.g., Kandel et al. 1991, pp. 458-59].) "Marler [1965] and Van Hoof [1963] agreed that in most species of primates the face . . . is the most important part of the animal" [Izard 1971, p. 38]).

11.9.1. Hominids. With hominids came the ability to communicate linguistic information--via hearing and sight--through words. In these advanced life forms, 1. the corticobulbar tract further evolved: corticobulbar pathways to the facial nerve (cranial VII) permitted intentional facial expressions (see, e.g., Smile). 2. Broca's cranial pathways evolved: Broca's-area neocircuits via corticobulbar pathways to multiple cranial nerves permitted speech. 3. And Broca's spinal pathways evolved: Broca's-area neocircuits via corticospinal pathways to cervical and thoracic spinal nerves permitted manual sign language and linguistic-like mime cues.

12. After Information--Homo sapiens (present day)

WE THE PEOPLE

12.1. Picture a busy airport. Energy consists of electricity and solar-created fossil fuels. Matter consists of airplanes, machines, and human beings with their material possessions. Information consists of shared messages that communicate about schedules that coordinate movements of matter throughout the airport's physical space. Finally, the reproductive force is evident in clothing and adornment designed to showcase gender, enhance sexual orientation, and announce presence: "I am here." Without any one of the four components--energy, matter, information or the reproductive force--human airports as we know them today would not exist.

12.2. In humans, spoken language is a verbal and vocal means of communicating emotions, perceptions, and thoughts by the articulation of words. The organization of systems of sound into language has enabled Homo sapiens a. to transcend the limits of individual memory, and b. to store vast amounts of information.

12.3. The human species displays a fervent curiosity about heavenly information. From aboriginal star gazing to modern astronomy, we have gathered electromagnetic information about the motion of planets, comets, and stars. First with eyesight alone, and subsequently with astrolabes and telescopes, our kind has amassed a detailed database of information about the cosmos. Tools and technology have extended our informational reach into atomic particles and universal energy forces to the point that we have begun to understand how we ourselves--and how the universe itself--evolved.

12.4. For human beings, until recently, the biggest database of information (knowledge) was the human genome. This biological database has been eclipsed by the amount of information now available on the Internet. Does this mean that natural selection has been, or will be, superseded by technological selection?

12.5. Semantic implication. U.S. political information today is more about amusement than semantic truth. Deceptive information is widely circulated in mass media.

12.6. Does "Information is energy" correlate with "Knowledge is power"?

13. After Information--Humans & Androids (10,000 years in the future)

HUMANDROIDS

13.1. Needing neither food nor water, but only electromagnetic energy to survive, programmed smart machines take precedence over human beings.

14. What ultimately Happens to Information?

UNKNOWN

14.1. Two proposed scenarios: 1. The universe keeps expanding indefinitely (Empty Space model); information may carry on. 2. The universe collapses into a state like that prior to the Big Bang (Big Crunch model); information and matter cease to exist. Should another explosion occur, no previous information will be communicated or carried forward into the new universe . . .

INFORMATION

Analog vs. Digital

REFERENCES

Flew, Andrew (1979). A Dictionary of Philosophy (New York: St. Martin's Press).

Bowman, John R. et al. (2017). "Insights into Land Plant Evolution Garnered from the Marchantia polymorpha Genome." Cell, Vol. 171, Oct. 5, pp. 287-304.

Givens, David B. 1997-2018. The nonverbal dictionary of gestures, signs & body language cues. Spokane, Washington, Center for Nonverbal Studies (www.center-for-nonverbal-studies.org/htdocs/6101.html; accessed March 26, 2016).

Kandel, Eric R., and Thomas M. Jessell (1991). "Touch." In Eric R. Kandel, James H. Schwartz and Thomas M. Jessell (Eds.), Principles of Neural Science, 3rd Ed. (Norwalk, Connecticut: Appleton & Lange), Ch. 26, pp. 367-84.

Krauss, Lawrence M. (2017). The Greatest Story Ever Told, So Far (New York: Atria Books).

Kruger, Robert (2018). "The Ongoing Shakeup in Organelle Biology." In Cell (V. 173, June 14), pp. 1557-59.

Loewenstein, Werner R. (1999). The Touchstone of Life: Molecular Information, Cell Communication, and the Foundation of Life (Oxford U. Press, New York).

Mi, X., Cady, J. V., Zajax, D. M., Deelman, P. W., and J. R. Petta (2016). "Strong Coupling of a Single Electron in Silicon to a Microwave Photon." Science, pp. XX.

Oh, Sookyung and Beronda L. Montgomery (2017). "Phytochromes: Where to Start?" Cell, V. 171, Nov. 30, pp. 1254-56.

Peterson, Aidan J. and Michael B. O'Connor (2018). "Lean on Me: Cell-Cell Interactions Release TGF-B for Local Consumption Only." Cell (Vol. 174, June 28), pp. 18-20.

Soukhanov, Anne H., Ed. (1992). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.).


Sudhof, Thomas C. (2017). "Synaptic Neurexin Complexes: A Molecular Code for the Logic of Neural Circuits." Cell (171, Nov. 2; pp. 745-69).

Wang, J. et al. (2018). "A Molecular Grammar Governing the Driving Forces for Phase Separation of Prion-like RNA Binding Proteins." Cell (174, July 26; pp. 688-99).

Wiener, Norbert (1948). Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (New York: Wiley).

Wilson, E. O. (1975). Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (Cambridge, Mass.:Belknap Press of Harvard University Press).


Zandonella, Catherine (2016). "Electron-photon Small-talk Could Have Big Impact on Quantum Computing." Princeton University news release, Princeton, New Jersey.

Copyright © 2018 (David B. Givens/Center for Nonverbal Studies)