Thermodynamics, information and life revisited, Part II: ‘Thermoeconomics’ and ‘Control information’
Thermodynamics, information and life revisited, Part II: ‘Thermoeconomics’ and ‘Control information’
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热力学、信息和生活重温，第二部分：“热经济学”和“控制信息”
DOI：
10.1002/(sici)1099-1743(199811/12)15:6
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发表时间：
1998
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
S. Kline
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
P. Corning;S. Kline
在本文的第一部分中，我们批评了在各个学科中对热力学和信息论关键概念的误用，特别是在生物进化理论方面。在对这一具有挑战性的文献进行简要介绍之后，我们首先在“秩序”和表征生命系统的信息“功能组织”之间画出一个至关重要的区别。然后，我们概述了我们认为在生物过程中能量和信息的作用理论化的适当范例；本质上，我们的范式是控制论的。接着是对热力学的简短讨论，特别提到了它在生物过程中的应用。有两个概念在工程文献中得到了很好的发展，但在其他地方并不常用，它们提供了一种我们认为更严格、更容易理解的方法，即“控制体积”参考框架和“可用能量”概念。这两个概念都是用精确的数学术语定义的。在第二部分中，我们讨论了生命系统的“热经济学”——即一种分析可用能量在生物进化中的作用的控制论和经济学方法——我们将这种范式与我们对信息的各种统计和结构定义以及我们所谓的“控制信息”之间的区别联系起来。我们批判信息论，我们将控制论术语中的控制信息定义为事物之间关系的属性，而不是“事物”，即在有目的（目的性）过程中控制物质/能量的获取、处置和利用的能力（专有技术）。我们还建议如何通过经验测量控制信息，并且我们提出了一种将热力学和信息论联系起来的方法，与现有的解决该问题的方法形成鲜明对比。最后，我们认为，在生命系统中，热力学过程可能受制于某些类似“生物经济”原则的规律。我们还阐明了一些含义。版权所有©1998 John Wiley & Sons， Ltd
In Part I of this paper, we critiqued the misuse of key concepts from thermodynamics and information theory in various disciplines, but especially in relation to theories of biological evolution. Following a brief introduction to this challenging literature, we began by drawing a critically important distinction between ‘order’ and the informed ‘functional organization’ that characterizes living systems. We then outlined what we believe is the appropriate paradigm for theorizing about the role of energy and information in biological processes; in essence, our paradigm is cybernetic. This was followed by a brief discussion of thermodynamics, with particular reference to its application to biological processes. Two concepts that are well developed in the engineering literature but not commonly used elsewhere provide an approach that we believe is both more rigorous and more readily understood, namely the ‘control volume’ frame of reference and the concept of ‘available energy’. Both of these concepts were defined in precise mathematical terms. In Part II, we discuss what we call the ‘thermoeconomics’ of living systems—that is, a cybernetic and economic approach to analyzing the role of available energy in biological evolution—and we relate this paradigm to a distinction that we draw between various statistical and structural definitions of information and what we call ‘control information’. We critique information theory and we define control information in cybernetic terms not as a ‘thing’ but as an attribute of the relationships between things—namely, the capacity (know-how) to control the acquisition, disposition and utilization of matter/energy in purposive (teleonomic) processes. We also suggest how control information can be measured empirically, and we propose a methodology for linking thermodynamics and information theory that contrasts sharply with existing approaches to this problem. Finally, we argue that in living systems thermodynamic processes may be subject to certain law-like ‘bioeconomic’ principles. We also elucidate some implications. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.