INFERENZE SULL'APPLICAZIONE DELLA TEORIA DELLA COMUNICAZIONE AI SISTEMI BIOLOGICI

Purpose of this thesis is to consider the application of communication models to biological systems and analysing the outcome of this hypothesis. Such implications comprehend the interpretation of environment and the evolutionary processes from an informative point of view, taking into account the key hypothesis of information theory. This approach is developed through an initial introduction to the examined subject and a brief analysis of information as key concept, that is the necessary assumption to the whole discussion. Afterward, communication theory and its main principles are described, explaining how they could fit a generic biological inheritance system. In this frame informational replicators convey messages through generation across spatial and temporal environment, that, in turn, could be affected by organisms’ feedback action. Whereas horizontal transmission between entities could suit into this model, the main focus is centred on vertical transmission and its consequences on the evolution of the entities. It is later explained how information handling and environment are the most important forces able to cause major evolutionary transitions. This kind of entities’ complexity shift might involve radical changes in the observed communication system itself, leading to the identification of higher-level entities with related emerging properties, acting as components of the new link. I elaborated a graphical representation to sum up the whole process from an informative perspective. An application of this model to “bit-guessers” entities is eventually brought from literature. In the latter section is demonstrated that these interpretations can possibly take to some further speculation on additional major transition regarding cultural replicators. The whole discussion is corroborated from many scientific articles and reviews concerning different aspects of the faced contents giving authors’ direct quotes. The reference to core communication theory is made sourcing Shannon’s model, that might be considered as a milestone of this field.