A New Chapter on Information Rethinking what information means

I’ve been curious about the origin of life since I was a child. This big question recently brought me to the work of Sara Imari Walker and her fascinating Informational Theory of Life. It’s still a topic of debate in many circles, but her ideas have opened up a whole new direction of thought for me.

This, in turn, led me to Robert Hazen’s work on Functional Information, which took my thinking further. I began to move away from biology and ask deeper questions like “What is information, really? And how does it shape the systems we’re part of?”

Along the way, I also came across John Wheeler’s evocative phrase, “it from bit”, the idea that physical reality arises from immaterial information.

That, in turn, led me back to Gregory Bateson and his relational and contextual view of information. Bateson didn’t see information as something we store or transmit, but as something that exists only in relationship, in difference, in context.

At the same time, I’ve been revisiting Claude Shannon’s Information Theory, which underpins much of modern computing and communications.

All of this is reshaping my perspective on information and knowledge. Since my work on Conversational Leadership has always been grounded in these domains, this shift is beginning to influence much of what I do.

Now, a new chapter is taking shape in my blook. Currently, it’s simply called Information. It’s still very much in development, but it’s my attempt to bring these diverse threads together, from biology to philosophy, from systems thinking to communication theory, and reflect on what they mean for how we live, learn, and lead.

I’m always struck by how an interest in something seemingly unrelated to Conversational Leadership eventually comes full circle. As the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome.

If you’re curious, take a look. I’ll be continuing to work on it over the coming weeks and months.