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Shannon-entropy of a signal is the probability of a given signal being present in a given physical
context. In short, the informational concept of entropy cannot be reduced to the physical one, since
the former, when used about something, specifies something as standing in the foreground of
attention (“the potential winners”), while countless other aspects of the physical situation are
deemed irrelevant (say, the armchairs in the room, or the interaction between molecules).
Different from Shannon-information is what Puddefoot calls shaping information , which is
the form or pattern of existing things. Here the interest lies in morphology, the study of forms, or on
specific characteristics. Shaping information may derive either from internal sources (such as a
zygote) or from external constraints that cause something to have a definite pattern in relation to its
environment. This shaping information is what Shannon-information is about when subsequently
used to acquire knowledge about the environment. But notice that the shaping information is
countless in the world surrounding us, depending on all kinds of boundaries that could fall under
observational interest, as well as on the scale of investigation. For example, is the snail and its
house one shape, or a compound of two? I therefore suggest to make a further distinction in the
general category of “shaping information”. Shaping information seems to have two forms, either in
form of the mere production of differences (as in quantum events), or in the form of larger-scale
semi-stable or resilient structures in the classical domains of physics, chemistry, and biology. In the
next section, I refer to these two forms of shaping information as “cutting-information” and
“channeling information”.
The third type of information is what we refer to in daily parlance: coming to know
something of importance. In meaning information, information is not only about something, but is
of interest for somebody in a given situation . An approaching military helicopter can either be a
neutral fact of no importance, it can be a salient sign of a fatal combat, or it can be the long-awaited
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rescue. In meaning information, we are not only interested in the fact that there is this or that feature
in our environment (to which we may refer), but we are interested in what it means to us .
Information is here part of a process of communication, as pointed out by Bernd-Olaf Küppers
(chapter 9, this volume). 8
As argued by both Deacon and Jesper Hoffmeyer (Chapters 8 and 10, this volume), the
aspects of salience and aboutness may already be present at biological level. However, wherever we
identify the entrance of meaning information (at basic cellular level, at brain level, or at the level of
human communication) we cannot slide easily from one aspect of information to another. Novel
informational features are emerging in the course of evolution. It seems to me, however, that the
concept of shaping information is basic in relation to the two other forms of information . Counting