Before providing more substance to my preliminary suggestions on purposefully
produced signals and informational artefacts in Part II, it will be important to systematically match the account of organism-environment relations outlined in the
preceding chapter against the account of natural information developed in Chapters 2 through 4. How is an environment informationally specific to an organism? How does the specificity of informational relations match with situations of
underspecification?
In order to at least point towards an answer to these questions, I will now work
towards a proposal that is based on a definition of what I will call “informational environments”. This term was first used, to my knowledge, by Kim Sterelny
(2003), with a partly similar meaning but, as we will see, within the context of
a partly different argument. Keeping track of some of the similarities and differences to his account will be instructive to the present subject matter. Moreover, it
will be useful to accord my account of informational environments with the conceptual distinctions between external vs. ecological (vs. selective) environments
and constitution vs. construction introduced in the preceding chapter. Hence, in
conclusion of Part I of this book, I will prepare and then present a definition of
informational environments, and take a look at what happens when informational
environments happen to change or are actively changed.
Environmental information and the use of cognition
In the previous chapter, I referred to Robert Brandon (1995) as identifying ecological environments, being the environments of main interest here, as the set of
conditions generally relevant to an organism or population in terms of growth
and reproduction. I also mobilised Richard Lewontin (1982), F. John OdlingSmee et al. (1996) and developmental systems theory to argue that ecological
environments and, more specifically, ecological niches, are partly of an organism’s and population’s own making. Last, I referred to Peter Godfrey-Smith
(1996a) and his more specific account of how organisms and populations enter
into relations of constructing and constituting aspects of their environment
and thus modify the set of conditions that are relevant to them, ideally to their
benefit.
6 What is an informational
environment?
produced signals and informational artefacts in Part II, it will be important to systematically match the account of organism-environment relations outlined in the
preceding chapter against the account of natural information developed in Chapters 2 through 4. How is an environment informationally specific to an organism? How does the specificity of informational relations match with situations of
underspecification?
In order to at least point towards an answer to these questions, I will now work
towards a proposal that is based on a definition of what I will call “informational environments”. This term was first used, to my knowledge, by Kim Sterelny
(2003), with a partly similar meaning but, as we will see, within the context of
a partly different argument. Keeping track of some of the similarities and differences to his account will be instructive to the present subject matter. Moreover, it
will be useful to accord my account of informational environments with the conceptual distinctions between external vs. ecological (vs. selective) environments
and constitution vs. construction introduced in the preceding chapter. Hence, in
conclusion of Part I of this book, I will prepare and then present a definition of
informational environments, and take a look at what happens when informational
environments happen to change or are actively changed.
Environmental information and the use of cognition
In the previous chapter, I referred to Robert Brandon (1995) as identifying ecological environments, being the environments of main interest here, as the set of
conditions generally relevant to an organism or population in terms of growth
and reproduction. I also mobilised Richard Lewontin (1982), F. John OdlingSmee et al. (1996) and developmental systems theory to argue that ecological
environments and, more specifically, ecological niches, are partly of an organism’s and population’s own making. Last, I referred to Peter Godfrey-Smith
(1996a) and his more specific account of how organisms and populations enter
into relations of constructing and constituting aspects of their environment
and thus modify the set of conditions that are relevant to them, ideally to their
benefit.
6 What is an informational
environment?