Exploration of Materialist Perspective, Meaning, and Biology in Relation to Information

The discussion delves into the common ground of operating from a puristic materialist and physicalist perspective that recognizes emergent properties and systems of interacting agents, such as virtual entities like representations and information. While information needs a physical representation, it is distinct from mere patterns due to inherent meaning, which is subjective, interpretive, and not easily localized or quantified. Understanding meaning is essential in biology as living beings rely on sense-making and meaningful information to navigate the world. Despite the challenges of quantifying meaning, a science of meaning is deemed possible and crucial in complementing mechanistic explanations. The importance of sense-making and meaningful information in cognition and biology is highlighted, underscoring the need to acknowledge fundamental principles often overshadowed by a physics-centric perspective.