An overview of the worldwide discussion of the information concept, this text presents thoughts of scholars from various disciplines including information and computer science, semiotics, system science, evolutionary theory, physics, biology, psychology, consciousness theory, and sociology.

Introduction to the Series, Foreword, Introduction, List of Contributors, APPROACHES TO UNIFICATION, 1. A Note on Evolution, 2. Is a Unified Theory of Information Feasible? A Trialogue, 3. Information: Resurrection of the Cartesian Physics, 4. Information Science as a Paradigmatic Instance of a Problem-Based Theory, 5. A Rudimentary Theory of Information: Consequences for Information Science and Information Systems, 6. What Is a Possible Ontological and Epistemological Framework for a True Universal 'Information Science'? The Suggestion of a Cybersemiotics, 7. Towards a Unified Concept of Information: Presentation of a New Approach, CONCEPTS OF INFORMATION, 8. System as Information—Information as System, 9. Cartesian Cut, Heisenberg Cut, and the Concept of Complexity, 10. Information: Definition, Origin and Evolution, 11. A Unifying Typology of Information, 12. Dimensional Symmetry Breaking, Information and the Arrow of Time in Cantorian Space, 13. Some Considerations About Interaction and Exchange of Information Between Open and Self-Organizing Systems, 14. Actio non est Reactio-. An Extension of the Concept of Causality Towards Phenomena of Information, 15. On Limits: Towards a Prototheory of Inform(ul)ation, SELF-ORGANIZING SYSTEMS, 16. The Rise of Information in an Evolutionary Universe, 17. The Overall Pattern of the Evolution of Information in Dissipative, Material Systems, 18. Entropy, Information and Predictability of Evolutionary Systems, 19. Entropy and Information, 20. Degeneracy of the Local Structure Renormalizing Infinite Time and Space, 21. Quantum Information in an Evolutionary Perspective, 22. Information and the Complementarity Game, 23. Structural and Functional Information—An Evolutionary Approach to Pragmatic Information, LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS, 24. Information—Neither Matter nor Mind: On the Essence and on the Evolutionary Stage Conception of Information, 25. Information Processing as an Intrinsic Property of Biological Systems: Origin and Dynamics of Information, 26. Cell Molecular Quantum Computer and Principles of New Science, 27. The Natural History of Information Processors, 28. The Evolution of Consciousness as a Self-Organizing Information System in the Society of Other Such Systems, 29. The Topological Inventions of Life: From the Specialization of Multicellular Colonies to the Functioning of the Vertebrate Brain, 30. The Feigenbaum Scenario in a Unified Science of Life and Mind, 31. The Demotion of Alpha-Homo sapiens: Consciousness, Punctuated Equilibrium, and the Laws of the Game, SOCIETY AND TECHNOLOGY, 32. Organisms, Machines, and Societies: From the Vertical Structure of Adaptability to the Management of Information, 33. Function Support as an Information Systems Development Paradigm, 34. Interaction, Information and Meaning, 35. The Structure of Communities and Communications in the New Millennium, 36. The Role of Variety in the Evolution of Information Society, 37. Knowledge in the Information Society, 38. The Noosphere Vision of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Vladimir I. Vernadsky in the Perspective of Information and of Worldwide Communication, 39. Webometry.- Measuring the Complexity of the World Wide Web, 40. The Emerging Global Brain, Index of Names, Subject Index