Functional information
The concept of functional information is an attempt to rigorously define the information content of biological systems. The concept was originated by a group led by Jack W. Szostak in 2003.
Definition
They define functional information as follows:- the concept of degree of function is introduced, where the degree of function is a non-negative objective measure of the capability of system to do the physical function.
- the fraction of possible configurations of the system that can achieve at least a particular level of function in regard to the physical function is defined to be
- the functional information relative to a given level of function is defined as
- because all possible configurations can achieve zero or more functionality, that is to say, the minimum possible functional information for a system is, which is zero.
- for the highest possible level of a degree of function of a system, there will be a well defined
Proposed law of increasing functional information
In 2023, a group of researchers proposed a law of increasing functional information, that asserts that a tendency to increase in functional information is an inherent property of the universe, encompassing both biological and non-biological systems.The researchers postulated that evolving systems appear to be conceptually equivalent by displaying three notable attributes:
- They form from numerous components that have the potential to adopt combinatorially vast numbers of different configurations;
- Processes exist that generate numerous different configurations;
- Configurations are preferentially selected based on function.