Evolution of Information Processing Systems

An interdisciplinary team of scientists is presenting a new
paradigm: all existing structures on earth are the
consequence of information processing. Since these
structures have been evolved over the last five billion
years, information processing and its systems have an
evolution.This is under consideration in the book. Starting
with a basic paper which summarizes the essential hypotheses
about the evolution of informaion processing systems,
sixteen international scientists have tried to verify or
falsify these hypothesises. This has been done at the
physical, the chemical, the genetic, the neural, the social,
the societal and the socio-technical level. Thus, the reader
gets an insight into the recent status of research on the
evolution of information processing systems. The papers are
the result of an interdisciplinary project in which
scientists of the classical disciplines have been invited to
collaborate. Their inputs have been intensively discussed in
a workshop. The book is the output of the workshop. The
first goal of the bookis to give the reader an insight into
basic principles about the evolution of information
processing systems. This, however, leads directly to a very
old and essential question: who is controlling the world,
"matter" or an "immaterial intelligence"? Several authors of
the papers are arguing that there is a basic concept of
information processing in nature. This is the crucial
process, which, however, needs a material basis. The reader
has a chance to understand this paradigm as an approach
which is valid for all levels of inorganic, organic and
societal structures. This provocative concept is open to
debate.