INFORMATIONAL CHARACTER OF SELF-ORGANIZED COORDINATION DYNAMICS

The classical dualism between information and dynamics rests on an incommensurability between two alternative modes of description. Part of the problem may be because the term ''dynamics'' is often restricted to ''ordinary physics'' and hence ''ordinary'' physical quantities. Studies of instabilities in biological systems show that the relevant variables are context-specific informational quantities (the so-called order parameters of synergetics) that exhibit nonlinear behavior, here termed coordination dynamics. In coordination dynamics, specific behavioral requirements are expressed in terms of these intrinsically meaningful order parameters. Thus, the predicates of information are dynamical to the extent that the predicates of (coordination) dynamics are informational (circular causality).