This paper examines dominant frameworks of information—semantic, nomological, and differential—by confronting them with a paradigmatic case of non-communicative learning: route learning through repeated interaction with structured environments. Classic accounts such as Floridi’s semantic information (Floridi, 2005; 2011), Dretske’s informational indication (Dretske, 1981), and Bateson’s notion of a “difference that makes a difference” (Bateson, 1972) encounter systematic limitations when required to accommodate stable, structurally embedded adaptation that does not rely on meaning, propositional content, or communicative intent. Drawing on this analysis, the paper advances a minimal conception of informationality grounded in structure and effect: a configuration counts as informational insofar as it exhibits an organizable structure that a system can discriminate and incorporate, resulting in stable and exploitable reorganization. This minimal approach operates at a level prior to semantic requirements while preserving the explanatory resources of established theories, and provides a conceptual basis for the further development of informational regimes across biological, cognitive, and artificial systems. The proposed account is intended as a first step toward a broader theory, open to debate, refinement, and empirical application.
Campos Rebollo (Wed,) studied this question.