Computer Science – Information Theory
Scientific paper
2010-04-12
Computer Science
Information Theory
9 pages, 1 figure
Scientific paper
One of the most basic properties of the communicative sign is its dual nature. That is, a sign is a twofold entity composed of a formal component, which we call signal, and a referential component, namely a reference. Based on this conception, we say that a referent is coded in a particular sign, or that a sign is decoded in a particular referent. In selective scenarios it is crucial for the success of any adaptive innovation or communicative exchange that, if a particular referent a is coded in a particular signal s during the coding process, then the referent a is decoded from the sign s during the decoding process. In other words the referentiality of a signal must be preserved after being decoded, due to a selective pressure. Despite the information-theoretic flavour of this requirement, an inquiry into classical concepts of information theory such as entropy or mutual information will lead us to the conclusion that information theory as usually stated does not account for this very important requirement that natural communication systems must satisfy. Motivated by the relevance of the preservation of referentiality in evolution, we will fill this gap from a theoretical viewpoint, by deriving the consistent information conveyed from an arbitrary coding agent $A^v$ to an arbitrary decoding agent $A^u$ and discussing several of its interesting properties.
Andreu Jordi Fortuny
Murtra Bernat Corominas
Solé Ricard
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