ENGLISH

Information Theory and Evolution

Book information

Publisher
World Scientific Publishing Company
Year
2003
ISBN
9812384006, 9789812384003
LCC
QH366.2 .A94 2003
Open Library ID
OL22540219M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
12 MB (12847697 bytes)
Pages
233\233
Topic
Biology
Library
Techlib
Time added
2009-11-09 02:42:13

Description

This highly interdisciplinary book discusses the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution (and also human cultural evolution), against the background of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Among the central themes is the seeming contradiction between the second law of thermodynamics and the high degree of order and complexity produced by living systems. This paradox has its resolution in the information content of the Gibbs free energy that enters the biosphere from outside sources, as the author shows. The role of information in human cultural evolution is another focus of the book. One of the final chapters discusses the merging of information technology and biotechnology into a new discipline — bio-information technology.

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