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Functional information

Information content of biological systems From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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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.[1]

Definition

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Perspective

They define functional information as follows:[2][3]

  • 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

This leads to two conclusions:

  • 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

Note that functional information of a system must always be defined relative to a specific function , without a choice of which it has no meaning.

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Proposed law of increasing functional information

In 2025, 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.[4][5][6]

References

See also

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