The lack of unified interpretations of such terms as cognizable information, data, information, and consciousness has begun to have a negative impact on the development of modern science and technology. This has been particularly evident in the discussions on the subject of “Does chatGPT have or does not have consciousness?

I decided to fill in this gap.

Part 1. Cognizable information

Absolutely all objects, processes and phenomena in the Universe, from “elementary particles” to the largest star clusters, from bacteria to human beings, from all kinds of radiation to the creations of human hands, in fact are carriers/media of various information (that could be cognized/perceived/read) about their origin, activity, evolution, “life path”, current state, etc. in the smallest detail. This “cognizable information” can tell a lot to someone who is able to “reveal”, “perceive” and “read” it.

Example #1: Light coming to us from a distant star is a valuable source of information for astronomers and can help solve many mysteries about the nature and origin of the universe. Analyzing the spectrum of light can provide information about the distance to the star and its speed, as well as the composition of the gases in the galaxy. The detection of chemical elements in the light spectrum, which may be associated with life, may indicate the presence of life on planets in that star’s system. This light can tell us about the star itself, its age, size, temperature, and composition. Changes in the brightness of the star can indicate the presence of planets passing in front of it…

Example #2: An artist’s painting from many centuries ago can tell researchers a lot about the culture and history of the time when it was created. It can contain information about the social, economic, and political life at that time. Also, it may reflect lifestyle, fashion, structure of the society, and even behavior of the people depicted in it. A painting can also show the architecture, landscape, and technological advances of the time. The size of the painting, the type of paint, the chemical composition of the paints, the material of the canvas, the author’s signature on the painting, etc. are also of interest to researchers.

Example #3: A handwritten letter can provide a variety of information for different subjects: for the addressee – it’s the content itself; for the graphologist – it’s the handwriting, containing information about the author of the letter; for the forensic scientist – it’s fingerprints on the letter, the composition of the ink and the paper the letter was written on; etc.

But… In the process of cognition some subjects can “read” this or that information, while others cannot do this for any of the reasons (lack of appropriate education, lack of necessary knowledge and experience, lack of desire to cognize anything, malfunction in functioning of the body and its receptors, and so on). Therefore, as a rule, people call “a source of information” only those objects, from which they are able to “read” what these objects “carry“.

Example #4: If a researcher of the Mumba-Yumba tribe does not know their language, he will not understand a single word or “catch” the slightest meaning in their speech. Everything uttered by the tribe will be mere noise to him.

Example #5: One subject (hunter) is able to “read” animal tracks, another (ornithologist) is able to “read” bird voices, a third (programmer) is able to “read” program code in a programming language he knows, a fourth (translator) is able to “read” texts in various world languages, a fifth (radio engineer) is able to “read” signals coming from radio stations to radio receiver using devices that people have specially created for this purpose…. and yet many people have no idea about the very possibility of “reading” this information…

Accordingly, it can be stated that:

• “Cognizable, or readable, information“ (rus. сведения, ukr. відомості) is everything that serves as a basis, on which a subject is able to characterize something.
• “Cognizable information“ does not exist by itself; it does not exist outside of the object – its carrier (i.e., medium)!
• “Cognizable information“ is, by default, unknown to the subject, but could potentially be cognized by him.
• “Cognizable information“ is an integral part of any object in the Universe, which the subject is able to perceive.
• Creators of “cognizable information“ are Creators of objects or processes, i.e., Nature, Beings, as well as human-made devices.
• A carrier, or a medium, is a conventional name of an object from the body of which a subject is able to perceive, or “read” “cognizable information“, which the object “carries on itself” by means of any physical effects.
• The medium of “cognizable information“ is the conventional name for the carrier “carrying” the “cognizable of information”, which is unknown to the subject by default.
• The medium of information is the conventional name for the medium “carrying” the information the subject has created.
• Characterizing (describing, outlining, qualifying…)  is identifying and describing characteristic features and properties of something or someone.  

Part 3. Data

Data (rus. данные, ukr. дані) – formally interpreted representation of cognizable information or information, which is suitable for subsequent communication and processing by human beings, information systems and their users.

In its essence, data are observations, recorded on a carrier/medium, stored there and are not used yet.

In order to improve the quality of the data, they are converted from one form to another by means of processing techniques. Data processing involves the following operations:

• Data entry (collection) – accumulating data to ensure sufficient completeness for decision making.
• Data formalization – converting the data from different sources into one form to make it more accessible.
• Data filtering – sifting out “superfluous” data that do not carry the necessary information to improve reliability and adequacy.
• Data sorting – arranging the data according to a certain attribute in order to facilitate its use.
• Data archiving – organizing the data storage in a convenient and easily accessible form.
• Data protection – a set of measures aimed at preventing loss, reproduction and modification of data.
• Data transportation – receiving and transferring data between participants of the information process.
• Data transformation – transfer of data from one form to another or from one structure to another.

Part 4. Information

Books on shelves in a library or a bookstore are full of all kinds of “cognizable information“, but for people who have not read them before, these books are nothing more than a potential “source of information“. The “cognizable information” these books “carry”, for the most part, is unknown to future readers. A book that a person has not read cannot bring him anything new, nor can it increase his knowledge. However, it remains a carrier of “cognizable information” until the paper, the carrier of this “cognizable information“, decays…

It is worth noting that the “cognizable information” didn’t appear in books by chance – it is a result of the process of creation of these books by a certain subject, which we conventionally call the Creator.  A book has a number of creators. Everyone who took part in its creation can be included in this category: the writer, the proofreader, the artist, the designer, as well as all those who printed this book…

Similarly, every object in the Universe has its Creators. For example: for a “galaxy” object the role of Creator belongs to Nature; for “program code” object the role of Creator may belong not only to a human-programmer, but also to a computer system with artificial intelligence elements…

A book is a carrier of “cognizable information” that is already known to someone. And information, by itself, is not a form of knowledge. To acquire knowledge, the subject needs to comprehend previously acquired information and become aware of it. “Сognizable information” “transferred” by books can become known for their readers only after they have made efforts (spend personal energy) to read these books and think about what they have read. In the process of reading books, the reader can discover something new for himself and create (produce) on its basis information which becomes a part of his knowledge pool.

“Monotonous weekdays look like a groundhog day for you. There is no information for you without novelty, no energy without change. And the current in the conductor appears only when it moves relative to the magnetic field.” Yury Larichev, «Symmetry», 2023.

“Imagine yourself standing by a river. On the opposite bank, your friend asks you to transfer some energy to them. You threw a stone to them; they felt the kinetic energy of the caught stone. You transferred energy to them with matter. A philosopher would say that the carrier of energy is a particle (a boson), without a particle, there is no energy. But then you clapped your hands on the water, of course, spending energy. Your friend dipped their hand in the river and felt the energy of the wave that reached them. The water did not flow towards your friend, only the surface was oscillating up and down. Your friend received energy without the transfer of matter. And now think about what you transmitted. Energy or the idea of oscillation? Then you will come to the thought that information and energy are the dual unity of the same thing. Like heads or tails, which alternately represent a coin. Call this coin a thought (or consciousness), and you will understand the question of the so-called “materiality of thought.” Yury Larichev, «Symmetry», 2023.

The process of interpretation enables the subject to:

• “read” the information;
• identify the meaning in the contents of the information;
• to create information if the information “bears” something new for the subject;
• “expand” one’s knowledge and consciousness.

The subject, as a rule, gives the information, which he/she creates, a particular form, i.e., formalizes it. For example: an article, an essay, a story, a myth, a byline, a tale, a fable, a parable, an anecdote, a proverb, an image, code, an algorithm, a video…, can represent different forms (formalizations) of the same information …. which can be placed on any media (paper, CD, DVD, web pages in a network, etc.). Therefore, the term ‘information’ can be interpreted as “in-formation”, i.e. the process of giving a form (in-formatio), and the term “the carrier of information” can be interpreted as a conventional name of an object which “carries” on itself the information created by a subject.

As a result, when the formalization process of all information “born” (produced) by one subject is completed,  it becomes “cognizable information” (“source of information”) for all other subjects, as it represents something that is unknown to them.

Information is a product, created (produced, born, formed) within a subject during the process of his activity and represents “cognizable information” about the surrounding world that is comprehended and interpreted by the subject and refracted through his knowledge and life experience. That is, in its essence, information is the contents of one’s thought, which is recorded on some carrier. 

Information (from latin informātiō “representation, notion of something”, informare – “to give form, shape, thought, imagination”) is “cognizable information” (regardless of the form it’s presented in), which is perceived by the subject, comprehended and interpreted by him.

The main difference between “cognizable information” and information is as follows:

• “Cognizable information” is a set of records (a set of statements) which are already known to someone, i.e. represent the contents of someone’s thought, recorded on some carrier.
• Information is a set of statements (a set of facts) which are already known to the subject, i.e., represent the contents of a subject’s thought, recorded on some carrier.

 

Part 5. Basic properties of information

1. Information is material, because it requires a material carrier.
2. Information is created (produced, formed, born) exclusively inside a subject in the process of his / her activity.
3. Information that is lost and not preserved in any copy cannot be restored.
4. Information is invariant with respect to a material carrier, i.e.:

• The same information can be encoded in different ways (a verbal message can be encoded by sound waves; by nerve signals in the process of speaking; by signs written on paper…).
• The same information can be recorded on different media (a book, a video, a web page on the web…).
• Different information can be recorded on the same medium (notebook).
• Information can be duplicated, modified, destroyed, etc…

 

Part 6. Consciousness

When “cognizable information”, previously known to somebody, becomes a “source of information” for the subject, then he, in case he finds something new in it for himself, creates information that automatically becomes a part of his consciousness. This is why the term consciousness can be interpreted as “all that is known to me” (“all that is known to the subject“).

The process of cognition always reduces incompleteness of the subject’s knowledge about the surrounding world, i.e., it leads to a constant “expansion” of the “volume” of consciousness both of the subjects themselves and, eventually, to an “expansion” of the “volume” of the Universe’s consciousness.

Since consciousness is an integral “part” of any organized matter and represents an objective characteristic (parameter) of any object in the Universe, it can be physically measured. 

K. Marx and F. Engels were right (Die deutsche Ideologie. Marx/Engels, Marx-Engels-Werke (MEW) 3, S. 26, 1846/1932), in stating that –

“Das Bewusstsein kann nie etwas Andres sein als das bewusste Sein, und das Sein der Menschen ist ihr wirklicher Lebensprozeß.”

“Consciousness can never be anything other than conscious being, and the existence of men is the real process of their life”

Conclusion: Conclusion: Any cognizable information is the content of some consciousness!