How fundamental is information?    1. Information in Shannon
communication theory   2. Semantic information is ill-defined
and subjective   3. A simple derivation of Shannon entropy   4.
References  This web page is a critical essay that considers how
well-defined and fundamental the concept of information is. The
essay has been inspired by an article "What Brings a World into
Being?" by David Berlinski [Berlinski].  The thrust of
Berlinski's article is to caution against an information-centric
view of the material world. It has become popular to regard
information as the fundamental essence of all things. As the
article says,  The thesis that the human mind is nothing more
than an information-processing device is now widely regarded as
a fact. 'Viewed at the most abstract level,' the science writer
George Johnson remarked recently in the New York Times, 'both
brains and computers operate the same way by translating
phenomena -- sounds, images, and so forth -- into a code that
can be stored and manipulated' .