David Rostcheck, 4/5/2022

Summary

This article proposes a new interdisciplinary field: Broad Information Theory (BIT). BIT aims to identify, validate, and apply high-level informational patterns across various domains. It enables the use of insights from one field, such as ecology or artificial intelligence, in seemingly unrelated fields, like business. As an extension of foundational information theory concepts, BIT provides a robust framework for solving complex problems by reusing optimal solution patterns. It also offers a systematic approach to the expert generalist method of problem-solving.

A Brief History of Information Theories

The 1920s and 1940s saw pioneers like Harry Nyquist, Ralph Hartley, and Claude Shannon laying the groundwork for information theory. Their work primarily focused on signal propagation, introducing the idea that information, independent of its storage or transmission medium, could be analyzed on its own. This lead to the development of optimal compression algorithms and the conception of the 'bit', the fundamental unit of information.

Later, quantum information theory extended these ideas to analyze the evolution of quantum mechanical systems' states, inherently informational. Other theories, like constructor theory and concepts presented in Steven Wolfram’s book 'A New Kind of Science', further generalized these notions. However, until now, there hasn't been a theory that extends the concept of information as a fundamental entity to a universally applicable analytical technique beyond the realms of physics and computer science.

The Age of Information and the Need for Broad Information Theory

Today, we perceive our world as inherently informational. Search engines, social networks, and even our interactions with electronic devices emphasize our computational existence. While we categorize our world into discrete academic disciplines, we often discern underlying informational similarities between them. This perception suggests a common informational foundation that we seek to explore through BIT.

Currently, we lack a discipline that can study these high-level information patterns across domains, catalog them, and provide mechanisms for their reuse to solve emerging issues in different areas. This gap is where Broad Information Theory (BIT) can provide a comprehensive framework for cross-domain solutions.

The Power of the Expert Generalist

The concept of the "expert generalist" - an individual with a broad but deep understanding across many fields - plays a crucial role in BIT. Expert generalists can perform at a high level across a range of seemingly unrelated domains and quickly draw from their extensive knowledge to interact with specialists.

Although specialization is often praised, it also has its limitations. Specialists tend to apply existing patterns, which might not be effective against new, emergent problems. Here, the expert generalist's breadth of knowledge and ability to deploy solutions from various fields can offer real breakthroughs.

BIT's Fundamental Postulates

BIT expands on the information theory concept that information is a fundamental entity, and our world, being made up of such entities (bits), has an inherently informational nature. Here are the three main postulates of BIT:

  1. Systems across different domains (biology, physics, economics, etc.) can be described as an architecture of their fundamental elements and how those elements process information. This is the information-theoretical view of the system.
  2. Informational patterns in a domain evolve through competitive selection pressure to meet environmental needs. When an informational pattern appears across unrelated domains, these domains may have similar underlying informational needs. The pattern may therefore represent a general solution to these needs.
  3. The assumption that a pattern represents a general solution can be tested by creating computational game-simulation models. If the pattern reliably out-competes other patterns at meeting the needs across different simulation models, it provides evidence that the pattern is a general solution to the underlying needs.

Application of BIT: An Example

Let's take the 'cellular architecture' pattern as an example. Biological organisms of higher complexity are composed of a large number of individual cells that are specialized and independently replaceable. This informational pattern of a complex entity composed of smaller, simpler entities can be found in many unrelated domains, such as: