home › Viruses › Information in wildlife, society, technology. Information processes in nature What information processes occur in nature

Information in wildlife, society, technology. Information processes in nature What information processes occur in nature

How is it represented in society? What about technology? All these questions can be answered within the framework of this article.

Importance of information

Receiving and converting data is necessary for the life of any arbitrary organism. Even the simplest single-celled organisms cannot do without this. So, they collect data on the temperature and chemical composition of the environment in order to choose the most suitable conditions for their existence. Moreover, living beings can not only perceive information received from environment thanks to the senses, but also to exchange it. This fully applies to humans. So, to receive data, the senses, of which there are five, are used, and the exchange is carried out using languages (gestures, natural, formal).

Information processes

They can be carried out not only in living nature (between people and in society in particular). Thus, mankind has created various devices - automata. Their work is closely related to the processes of receipt, storage and For example, there is such an automatic device as a thermostat. He works with information about room temperature. Depending on the temperature regime set by the person and the situation that exists now, he can turn on/off the heating devices. There are three types of information processes:

Treatment.
Broadcast.
Storage.

As you can see, information from living and inanimate nature has a lot in common. It should be said that a person is still more complexly organized than the same technology, although some may find it difficult to believe this. Thanks to our senses, we can perceive data, comprehend it and, combining our experience, knowledge and intuition, make some decisions. They are then translated into real actions that change the world around us.

Information in wildlife

This is a very interesting topic. The most significant storage in this case is the genome. It contains data that determines the structure and development. Genetic information is inherited. It is stored in DNA molecules. They are made up of four components called nucleotides. Together they form the genetic alphabet. If we are talking about examples, it allows us to best present it. Individual areas are responsible for the structure and functioning of specific parts of the body. Genes determine capabilities and predispositions to talents or hereditary diseases. The more complex an organism is, the more individual sections can be distinguished in DNA molecules. Thus, the human genome has over 20 thousand genes, which contain over 3 billion nucleotide residues. lasted for decades. Despite the widespread use of computer technology, the bulk of the work was completed only in the 2000s. But these are not the only possible examples of information in living nature. Let's think about trees and vegetation in general. By winter they go to sleep, and in the spring they wake up. This is a real transfer of information in living nature: plant cells sense that conditions are changing and begin to curtail their activities. A similar example can be given when talking about animals. So, look at the bears. The transmission of information in wildlife in this case is manifested in the fact that they accumulate fat, and when cold weather sets in, they go into hibernation mode. Here processes occur both at the level of the whole organism and individual systems. There is one interesting aspect here that information in living nature has. Computer science is a science that studies all processes related to data. Nowadays this is understood mainly as a technical direction, and the biological one is almost not considered within its framework. For this purpose, microbiology, biochemistry, biophysics and a number of other sciences that deal with processes in living organisms were specially created.

Information in society

Man is a social being. To communicate with other people, you need to exchange data with them. In our society, there are such designations for them: message, information, awareness of the state of affairs. What is interesting is that information processes are not the exclusive prerogative of human society. Why does the grass turn yellow by autumn, the leaves fall off, and in general all vegetation goes into sleep mode during the cold season? And why is everything reborn in the spring? This is all the result of information processes that occur in plants. Thus, their cells can perceive changes that occur in the external environment and react accordingly to them.

Information in technology

Cybernetics deals with this area. In this science, management itself is used to describe organizational processes in various dynamic systems (which can be living organisms or technical devices). Their vital activity or normal functioning is closely related to management processes. Therefore, all necessary processes are supported within the required range of parameter values. These include receiving, storing, transforming and transmitting information. In any process of this type, two objects always interact - the manager and the managed. They are connected by a direct and feedback channel. The first transmits control signals. With their help, the control object is brought to the required range of parameters. The feedback channel transmits information about the status and current state of affairs.

Let's look at how this is done using the example of regulating the temperature in a room thanks to an air conditioner. In this case, a person acts as a managing object. The air conditioner is controlled. A thermometer is placed in the room, which provides a person with data on the temperature. This is a feedback channel. To increase or decrease the temperature, or change the range, a person can turn the air conditioner on or off. This is an example of how a feedforward channel works. As a result, the room temperature is maintained in a certain range that is comfortable for humans. Computer work can be analyzed in a similar way. Man here again acts as a manager (and technology as a controlled) object. Thanks to the senses (such as vision and hearing), information about the state of the computer is obtained through an information output device (monitor or speakers), which acts as a feedback channel. A person analyzes the received data and makes a decision to take certain control actions. With the help of information input devices (mouse or keyboard), which act as a direct communication channel, they are made relative to the computer. You see what features information from living and inanimate nature has.

Human perception of data

It is worth special mentioning those who provide the greatest interest - people. Regarding us, we can say that the most valuable thing, what makes us such highly organized beings, is human thinking. This is a very developed information processing process - at the moment, the best on Earth. A person can act as a carrier of a large amount of data, which is presented as visual images, various facts, theories, and the like. The entire process of cognition, which occurs almost continuously, consists of obtaining and accumulating information.

Scientific approach

Cybernetics studies technical aspects. In general, this direction is implemented within the framework of computer science, which deals with the study of data and all its features. But the peculiarity of cybernetics is that this science specializes in controlling the processes that occur. She explores influence and careful monitoring of information movement and optimization.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is information in living nature, society, technology, ourselves - wherever you look, you can find it. It is impossible to do without it. And if some information is missing, a person often experiences significant difficulties.

In the modern world, the role of computer science, means of processing, transmitting, and storing information has increased immeasurably. Information science and computer technology now largely determine the scientific and technical potential of the country, the level of development of its national economy, the way of life and human activity.

For the purposeful use of information, it must be collected, transformed, transmitted, accumulated and systematized. All these processes associated with certain operations on information will be called information processes. Receiving and converting information is a necessary condition for the life of any organism. Even the simplest single-celled organisms constantly perceive and use information, for example, about the temperature and chemical composition of the environment to select the most favorable living conditions. Living beings are capable of not only perceiving information from the environment using their senses, but also exchanging it with each other.

A person also perceives information through the senses, and languages are used to exchange information between people. During the development of human society, many such languages arose. First of all, these are native languages (Russian, Tatar, English, etc.)” spoken by numerous peoples of the world. The role of language for humanity is extremely great. Without it, without the exchange of information between people, the emergence and development of society would be impossible.

Information processes are characteristic not only of wildlife, humans, and society. Humanity has created technical devices - automata, the work of which is also associated with the processes of receiving, transmitting and storing information. For example, an automatic device called a thermostat receives information about the temperature of the room and, depending on the temperature set by a person, turns on or off heating devices.

Human activity associated with the processes of receiving, transforming, accumulating and transmitting information is called information activity.

For thousands of years, the objects of human labor have been material objects. All tools from the stone ax to the first steam engine, electric motor or lathe were associated with the processing of matter, the use and transformation of energy. At the same time, humanity had to solve the problems of management, the problem of accumulating, processing and transmitting information, experience, knowledge; groups of people arise whose profession is associated exclusively with information activities. In ancient times these were, for example, military leaders, priests, chroniclers, then scientists, etc.

However, the number of people who could use information from written sources was negligible. Firstly, literacy was the privilege of an extremely limited circle of people and, secondly, ancient manuscripts were created in single (sometimes only) copies.

A new era in the development of information exchange was the invention of printing. Thanks to the printing press created by J. Gutenberg in 1440, knowledge and information became widely replicated and accessible to many people. This served as a powerful incentive for increasing the literacy of the population, developing education, science, and production.

As society developed, the circle of people whose professional activities were related to the processing and accumulation of information constantly expanded. The volume of human knowledge and experience was constantly growing, and with it the number of books, manuscripts and other written documents. There was a need to create special repositories for these documents - libraries, archives. The information contained in books and other documents had to be not just stored, but organized and systematized. This is how library classifiers, subject and alphabetical catalogs and other means of systematizing books and documents arose, and the professions of librarian and archivist appeared.

As a result of scientific and technological progress, humanity has created ever new means and methods of collecting, storing, and transmitting information. But the most important thing in information processes - processing, purposeful transformation of information - was carried out until recently exclusively by humans.

At the same time, the constant improvement of technology and production has led to a sharp increase in the volume of information with which a person has to operate in the process of his professional activity.

The development of science and education has led to a rapid increase in the volume of information and human knowledge. If at the beginning of the last century the total amount of human knowledge doubled approximately every fifty years, then in subsequent years - every five years.

The way out of this situation was the creation of computers, which greatly accelerated and automated the process of information processing.

The first electronic computer, ENIAC, was developed in the USA in 1946. In our country, the first computer was created in 1951 under the leadership of Academician V. A. Lebedev.

Currently, computers are used to process not only numerical but also other types of information. Thanks to this, computer science and computer science have become firmly established in the life of modern people and are widely used in production, design work, business and many other industries.

Computers in production are used at all stages: from the construction of individual parts of a product, its design to assembly and sale. The computer-aided production system (CAD) allows you to create drawings, immediately obtaining a general view of the object, and control machines for the production of parts. A flexible production system (FPS) allows you to quickly respond to changes in the market situation, quickly expand or curtail the production of a product, or replace it with another. The ease of transferring the conveyor to the production of new products makes it possible to produce many different product models. Computers allow you to quickly process information from various sensors, including from automated security, from temperature sensors to regulate energy costs for heating, from ATMs that record the spending of money by customers, from a complex tomography system that allows you to “see” the internal structure of human organs and correctly place diagnosis.

The computer is located on the desktop of a specialist in any profession. It allows you to contact any part of the world via a special computer mail, connect to the collections of large libraries without leaving your home, use powerful information systems - encyclopedias, study new sciences and acquire various skills with the help of training programs and simulators. He helps the fashion designer to develop patterns, the publisher to arrange text and illustrations, the artist to create new paintings, and the composer to create music. An expensive experiment can be completely calculated and simulated on a computer.

The development of methods and techniques for presenting information, technology for solving problems using computers, has become an important aspect of the activities of people in many professions.

Information is a measure of the increasing complexity of living organisms. About 3.5 billion years ago, life arose on Earth. Since then, self-development has been going on, the evolution of living nature, i.e. increasing the complexity and diversity of living organisms. Living systems (unicellular, plants and animals) are open systems, since they consume matter and energy from the environment and emit waste products into it, also in the form of matter and energy.

Living systems in the process of development are capable of increasing the complexity of their structure, i.e. increase information, understood as a measure of the orderliness of system elements. Thus, plants, in the process of photosynthesis, consume energy from solar radiation and build complex organic molecules from “simple” inorganic molecules.

Animals pick up the baton of increasing the complexity of living systems, eating plants and using plant organic molecules as building materials to create even more complex molecules.

Biologists figuratively say that “living things feed on information,” creating, accumulating and actively using information.

Information signals. In biology, which studies living nature, the concept of “information” is associated with the appropriate behavior of living organisms. This behavior is based on the body’s receipt and use of information about the environment in the form of information signals. Information signals can have a different physical or chemical nature: sound, light, smell, and others.

Protozoa (for example, amoeba) can only obtain information about the chemical composition and temperature of the environment. Moreover, information can only be obtained about the nearest areas of the environment through direct contact of the protozoan with the environment.

Approximately 40 thousand years ago, in the process of evolution of living nature, Homo sapiens (translated from Latin - Homo Sapiens) appeared. A person can use six different ways of perceiving information through different senses:

? vision, with the help of the eyes information is perceived in the form of visual images;
? hearing, which uses the ear to perceive sounds (speech, music, noise, etc.);
? smell, with the help of special receptors in the nose, odors are perceived;
? taste, tongue receptors allow you to distinguish between sweet, salty, sour and bitter foods;
? touch, skin receptors (especially fingertips) allow you to obtain information about the temperature of objects and the type of their surface (smooth, rough, etc.);
? orientation in space, gravitational receptors make it possible to obtain information about the position of the body in space.

A person receives the largest amount of information (about 90%) through vision, about 9% through hearing, and only 1% through other senses (smell, touch, taste and orientation in space).

Sensitive nerve endings of the sense organs (receptors) perceive the influence (for example, in the fundus of the eye, cones and rods react to the influence of light rays) and transmit it to neurons (nerve cells), the chains of which make up the nervous system.

A neuron can be in two states: non-excited or excited. An excited neuron generates an electrical impulse that is transmitted throughout the nervous system. In the nervous system, encoding and transmission of information occurs using two states of the neuron: there is no impulse, there is an impulse.

In this case, the states of the neuron themselves can be considered as signs of a certain alphabet of the nervous system, with the help of which information is transmitted.

A person stores the information received in the form of visual, auditory and other images in memory, processes it through thinking and uses it to manage his behavior and achieve his goals. For example, when crossing the road, a person sees traffic lights and moving cars, analyzes the information received and chooses a safe crossing option.

Genetic information. The concept of “information” in biology is also used in connection with studies of the mechanisms of heredity. Genetic information is inherited and stored in all cells of living organisms. Genes are complex molecular structures that contain information about the structure of living organisms. The latter circumstance made it possible to conduct scientific experiments on cloning, i.e. creating exact copies of organisms from one cell.

Rice. 1.7.

Genetic information largely determines the structure and development of living organisms and is inherited. Moreover, children are not exact copies of their parents, since each organism has a unique set of genes that determine differences in structure and functionality.

Genetic information is stored in the cells of organisms in the structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules. The DNA molecule consists of two chains twisted together into a spiral, built from four nucleotides: A, G, T and C, which form the genetic alphabet.

The human DNA molecule includes about 3 billion nucleotide pairs, and therefore all information about the human body is encoded in it: its appearance, health or predisposition to disease, abilities, etc.

Genetically modified organisms http://900igr.net/prezentacija/ biologija/biotekhnologija-164878/transgennye-organizmy-9.htm

In living organisms, information is transmitted and stored using objects of various physical natures (the state of a neuron, nucleotides in a DNA molecule), which can be considered as signs of biological alphabets.

Rice. 1.8.

1. What is the physical nature of the sign when representing information in the nervous system? In the genetic code?
2. What methods and senses does a person use when perceiving information?

>>Informatics: Introduction. Information and information processes

Introduction. Information and information processes.

Information in inanimate nature.

In physics, which studies inanimate nature, information is a measure of the orderliness of a system on the “chaos-order” scale. One of the basic laws of classical physics states that closed systems, in which there is no exchange of matter and energy with the environment, tend over time to move from a less likely ordered state to a more likely chaotic state. In accordance with this point of view, physicists at the end of the 19th century predicted that our Universe would face “thermal death,” that is, molecules and atoms would be evenly distributed in space and any changes and development would cease. However, modern science has established that some laws of classical physics, valid for macrobodies, cannot be applied to the micro- and megaworld. According to modern scientific concepts, our Universe is a dynamically developing system in which processes of increasing complexity of the structure are constantly occurring. Thus, on the one hand, in inanimate nature in closed systems processes occur in the direction from order to chaos (they decrease). On the other hand, in the process of the evolution of the Universe, objects with an increasingly complex structure appear in the micro- and megaworld and, consequently, information, which is a measure of the orderliness of the elements of the system, increases.

Information in living nature.

Living systems in the process of development are capable of increasing the complexity of their structure, i.e., increasing information, understood as a measure of the orderliness of the elements of the system. Thus, plants, in the process of photosynthesis, consume energy from solar radiation and build complex organic molecules from “simple” inorganic molecules. Animals pick up the baton of increasing the complexity of living systems, eating plants and using plant organic molecules as building materials to create even more complex molecules. Biologists figuratively say that “living things feed on information,” creating, accumulating and actively using information. The expedient behavior of living organisms and the survival of animal populations are largely based on the receipt of information signals. Information signals can have a different physical or chemical nature: sound, light, smell, and others.

Genetic information is a set of genes, each of which is “responsible” for certain features of the structure and functioning of the body. Moreover, “children” are not exact copies of their parents, since each organism has a unique set of genes that determine differences in structure and functionality.

Man and information.

A person exists in a “sea” of information, he constantly receives information from the world around him using his senses, stores it in his memory, analyzes it through thinking and exchanges information with other people. A person cannot live outside of society. In the process of communicating with other people, he transmits and receives information in the form of messages. At the dawn of human history for transfer of information Sign language was used first, and then spoken language appeared. Currently, messages are exchanged between people using hundreds of natural languages (Russian, English, etc.). In order for a person to correctly navigate the world around him, information must be complete and accurate. The task of obtaining complete and accurate information about nature, society and technology stands before science. The process of systematic scientific knowledge of the surrounding world, in which information is considered as knowledge, began in the mid-15th century after the invention of printing.

Information processes in technology.

The functioning of technical device control systems is associated with reception processes, storage, processing and transmission of information. Control systems are built into almost all modern household appliances, numerically controlled machines, vehicles, etc. Control systems can ensure the functioning of a technical system according to a given program. For example, program control systems provide a choice of washing modes in a washing machine, recording in a VCR, or processing a part on a program-controlled machine. In some cases, the main role in the control process is played by a person; in others, control is carried out by a microprocessor built into a technical device or a connected computer. In modern information society The main resource is information, the use of which is based on information and communication technologies. Information and communication technologies are the collection of methods, devices and production processes used by society to collect, store, process and disseminate information.

The amount of information as a measure of reducing knowledge uncertainty.

The process of cognition of the surrounding world leads to the accumulation of information in the form of knowledge (facts, scientific theories, etc.). Obtaining new information leads to an expansion of knowledge or, as is sometimes said, to a decrease in the uncertainty of knowledge. If some message leads to a decrease in the uncertainty of our knowledge, then we can say that such a message contains information. The more uncertain the initial situation (the more possible information messages), the more new information we will receive when receiving an information message (the uncertainty of knowledge will decrease more times). The approach to information discussed above as a measure of reducing the uncertainty of knowledge allows us to quantitatively measure information.

There is a formula that relates the number of possible information messages N and the amount of information I carried by the received message:

To quantify any quantity, you must first determine the unit of measurement. The smallest unit of information quantity is a bit, and the next largest unit is a byte, with 1 byte = 8 bits = 23 bits. In computer science, the system for forming multiple units of measuring the amount of information uses the coefficient 2n. Units for measuring the amount of information that are multiples of a byte are entered as follows: 1 KB = 210 bytes = 1024 bytes; 1 MB = 210 KB = 1024 KB; 1 GB = 210 MB = 1024 MB.

Alphabetical approach to determining the amount of information.

With the alphabetical approach to determining the amount of information, we abstract from the content of the information and consider the information message as a sequence of signs of a certain sign system. The formula connects the number of possible information messages N and the amount of information I carried by the received message.

Then in the situation under consideration, N is the number of signs in the alphabet of the sign system, and I is the amount of information that each sign carries:

Using this formula, you can, for example, determine the amount of information that a sign carries in a binary sign system: Thus, in a binary sign system, a sign carries 1 bit of information. Interestingly, the very unit of measurement of the amount of information bit (bit) got its name from the English phrase Binary digit, i.e. binary digit. The greater the number of signs the alphabet of a sign system contains, the greater the amount of information carried by one sign.

Computer science and ICT: Textbook for 10th grade. N.D. Ugrinovich

Lesson content lesson notes supporting frame lesson presentation acceleration methods interactive technologies Practice tasks and exercises self-test workshops, trainings, cases, quests homework discussion questions rhetorical questions from students Illustrations audio, video clips and multimedia photographs, pictures, graphics, tables, diagrams, humor, anecdotes, jokes, comics, parables, sayings, crosswords, quotes Add-ons

Receiving and converting information is a necessary condition for the life of any organism. Even the simplest single-celled organisms constantly perceive and use information, for example, about the temperature and chemical composition of the environment to select the most favorable living conditions. Living beings are capable of not only perceiving information from the environment using their senses, but also exchanging it with each other.

For example, DNA molecules store hereditary information that is passed on from parents to children. This information is processed by the body during its development.

Information processes are characteristic not only of wildlife, humans and society, but also of technology. This technique simulates some human actions and is capable of partially (and sometimes completely) replacing it in these cases. Man has developed technical devices, in particular computers, that are specifically designed for automatic information processing.

For example, information about a product in a supermarket is stored in a computer database, marked (processed) with a bar code, and transmitted to the cash register (price) or to the warehouse (quantity of product). Another example is quartz watches. Instead of a pendulum, springs and gears, they use a microprocessor, a quartz crystal and a battery. Just to show the time, the microprocessor must process about 30,000 pieces of information per second.

Human activity associated with the processes of receiving, transforming, accumulating and transmitting information is called information activities.

As a result of scientific and technological progress, humanity has created ever new means and methods of collecting, storing, and transmitting information.

Control systems

Science studies management processes cybernetics. Cybernetics was started by the American scientist Norbert Winner.

Under management refers to the purposeful interaction of objects, some of which control, while others are controlled.

Management is a complex information process that includes receiving, storing, transforming and transmitting information.

Popular in the category: