CREA, Ecole Polytechnique, 32 Boulevard Victor, 75015 Paris, France.
Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 2012 Aug;109(3):108-14. doi: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2012.06.004. Epub 2012 Jul 13.
In the last century, jointly with the advent of computers, mathematical theories of information were developed. Shortly thereafter, during the ascent of molecular biology, the concept of information was rapidly transferred into biology at large. Several philosophers and biologists have argued against adopting this concept based on epistemological and ontological arguments, and also, because it encouraged genetic determinism. While the theories of elaboration and transmission of information are valid mathematical theories, their own logic and implicit causal structure make them inimical to biology, and because of it, their applications have and are hindering the development of a sound theory of organisms. Our analysis concentrates on the development of information theories in mathematics and on the differences between these theories regarding the relationship among complexity, information and entropy.
上个世纪,随着计算机的出现,信息的数学理论也随之发展起来。此后不久,在分子生物学兴起的过程中,信息的概念迅速被引入到整个生物学领域。一些哲学家和生物学家基于认识论和本体论的论据,也因为它鼓励了遗传决定论,反对采用这个概念。虽然信息的阐述和传递理论是有效的数学理论,但它们自身的逻辑和隐含的因果结构使它们与生物学格格不入,因此,它们的应用已经并在阻碍健全的生物体理论的发展。我们的分析集中在数学中信息理论的发展,以及这些理论在复杂性、信息和熵之间关系上的差异。