The Role of Information in Complex Systems

Information plays a crucial role in complex systems, going beyond the conventional understanding of it as something that can be known or communicated. It involves the reduction of uncertainty and the narrowing down of possibilities to determine outcomes. The concept of information is closely related to the meaningful communication between individuals, where information carries specific meaning and can be copied and shared. A fascinating aspect of information is its counterfactual nature, where something that did not happen can still have a causal influence on events. Understanding information in complex systems requires a different perspective than traditional physics, as it involves nonlinear causes and the recognition of the intertwined nature of objects and their common history.