Building with/on Howard T. Odum’s theory of information

AbstractOver a long and renowned career, HT Odum assembled an original body of ecological and energy systems science. Perhaps less well known are his ideas about information. Beginning in an era of information theory and cybernetics, Odum built upon and moved away from many of the trends in information, linking biodiversity and culture to his energy systems principles of maximum empower and hierarchy. What emerged was a unique understanding of what information IS and what it DOES. The first goal of this paper is to piece together Odum’s theory of information from his many writings. The second goal is to attempt to build on this body of ideas to extend its reach, and to build with his ideas in new directions, but in directions that he would recognize to be in his energy systems science tradition. The result will be two proposed corollaries to his Fifth Energy Law, a Hierarchy of Cultural Information, and a Hierarchy of Manufactured Objects.KEYWORDS: Informationemergyhierarchymaximum empowerinformation cyclesculture Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Odum fully understood the information theory of his day, as evidence especially by his chapter on complexity, information, and order in Systems Ecology (Odum Citation1983, 302ff). The same can be said about the uses of information theory in ecology, specifically in the development of diversity indices (Odum Citation1983, 343).2 Also known as the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics.3 These books followed in a distinguished tradition of popular science publications that included Hutchinson (Citation1965); Schrodinger (Citation1944); Wiener (Citation1954, Citation1964), and others.4 “Information is defined here as ‘the configurations of the parts of a system.’ Information is in the real operating system, but it can also be separated out from the system as an isolated plan … When systems emerge through evolution and self-organization, the designs that maximize power can be separated from their system as coded information” (Odum Citation1995, 321).“Information is the components, configurations, and programmed sequences of functional systems that is sustained by extracting, copying, and reapplication of operations” (Odum Citation2007, 224).“Using traditional concepts, information was defined as the components and configuration of a system (real or imagined)” (Odum Citation1999a, 237).“Here information is defined as the parts and relationships of something that take less resources to copy than to generate anew” (Odum Citation2007, 87).5 Ecosystem configurations are commonly quantified with diversity indices, which began with the work of Shannon. Odum is acquainted with many, here in Systems Ecology is a table of twelve, (Odum Citation1983, 343). While he adopted this “configurations” view of information, he had reservations, as will be discussed in the text.6 Radio example (Odum Citation1987, 44; Citation1999a, 237; Citation2007, 88, 224).7 For Odum, a basic feature of human society could be called “the occupations analogy”, “Human occupations are analogous to the species of an ecosystem. Both refer to the specialities by which a system’s work is accomplished” (Odum and Odum Citation2001, 24). Odum frequently makes use of this analogy (Odum Citation1999a, 263; Citation2007, 150–151). Formally stated, Species: Ecosystems : Occupations : Human society. Species are to ecosystems, as occupations are to contemporary human societies. Of course, human society contains other “units”, e.g. individuals, families, kin groups, corporations, nations, etc. But, for Odum, occupations are the smallest distinctive functional units or roles in an economy, just as species represent functional roles in an ecosystem. Also, occupation titles, like species names, are labels for populations of individual organisms. For Odum, a configuration of occupations can also be aggregated into a series or scales formed by the level of education required in each (Figure 2).8 “The useful information of operational ecosystems and economic systems is tied to the real operation. However, the plan of the system’s arrangements can be extracted from its operational system and written on paper, on a computer disk, or in coded genes. The isolated information may be miniaturized in small spaces such as brains, computer chips, and memory disks that facilitate copying, sharing, dispersal, and feedback control actions. The extracted information may be in a dormant, unused form, stored in a book, but the information can be reapplied to configure and operate a system again” (Odum Citation1988, 1137).9 An ecosystem configuration or “set of species” may be extracted and used to reproduce a system, as when “representatives of these species are isolated from their system, as we observe in botanical gardens and zoos. The ecosystem can be restored to that same environmental condition by recombining the set of species and allowing self-organization to develop” (Odum Citation1999a, 237).10 “Large-scale patterns of society reproduce and maintain their information with education one generation after another, a process of copying and selecting” (Odum Citation2007, 225).“Information is the essence of relationships stored in compact form which may be used to configure much larger components. When functional information is extracted, it has utility when it is fed back to control and organize a system of parts again” (Odum Citation1987, 44).11 “When isolated in compact form, information requires some form of energy as a carrier, such as that in the DNA of seeds, the paper of books, the electromagnetic waves of radio transmission, or the neuroelectrical processes of the brain” (Odum Citation1996, 220).“Information requires a carrier, either the operating system or the material of the extract such as the paper, seed, books, computer disk, sound waves, and mental structure. There is a small amount of available energy in all information (in the information carrier)” (Odum Citation1999a, 237).“Information requires a carrier and the carrier has energy. It is not possible to separate information from a tiny bit of energy. The configurations of letters in books, messages on telephone, computer memories are all dependent on what is used to carry or store them” (Odum Citation1987, 45).“Information cannot be stored without some carrier, paper, computer disks, human minds, geologic materials, etc. Since anything that can store information has to be different from its surroundings, the carrier of information possesses some concentration difference and may depreciate, especially when their carrier depreciates” (Odum Citation1987, 45).12 “What makes information configurations different from other storages is that: Information is something more easily copied than regenerated anew” (Odum Citation1999a, 237).13 “After information has been copied, it may be shared. The same information then has a larger territory, a greater area of influence, and a slower depreciation rate. Considerable additional work must be done to develop the shared status … The shared genetic information in the populations of birds and plants has broad territories due to bird movements and seed dispersals. Information shared by a species has a larger territory than the individual organisms” (Odum Citation1987, 46–47).14 “Shared information covers larger areas and has larger areas of influence. In the aggregate, it lasts longer (turnover time of shared information is longer), has larger territory, and greater influence” (Odum Citation1987, 47).15 “The development of specific behavioral and chemical means for keeping the species functions separate constitutes insulation of the circuits and is expensive in work drains on the available energy budget. If insulating mechanisms are absent, energies are lost through leaks between circuits. The energy reinforcement for developing species-insulating mechanism is greater when networks are complex” (Odum Citation2007, 240).16 “The log-of-possibilities measure gives the same value to useful information that has been selected through reinforcement during self-organization to operate systems as it does to useless complexity that will not operate anything” (Odum Citation1996, 237). Also similarly stated in Odum (Citation1987, 79).17 “Widely used in ecology is the Shannon-Weaver-Weiner diversity index, which calculates the bits per individual of a set of units or pathways. For species, values range from less than 1–7 bits per individual in some rainforests. The emergy per bit for small units such as microbes is much smaller than that for large units such as trees, even though the number of bits per individual are the same” (Odum Citation1996, 239–240).18 While this was Wiener’s opinion, the situation today is more complex, for instance in physiology, as positive feedback effects the generation of periodic pulses in nerve transmission, pacemakers that control the respiratory center or heartbeat, or physiological expulsion processes, such as childbirth. I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this correction.19 Odum began experimenting with passive electrical analog simulations in the 1950s. He was one of the first to apply electronic simulation to ecological systems (Odum Citation1960). At the same time, Jay Forrester at MIT was developing techniques for computer simulation of industrial systems (Forrester Citation1961). Over time, both developed a diagramming language to describe their simulations. Both approaches became widely known, Forrester’s as system dynamics (SD), and Odum’s as the energy system language (ESL). Both migrated their simulation to minicomputers in the 1970s. In the 1970s, Odum directed a number of PhD and Masters students to produce complex simulations, e.g. Boynton (1975), included in Odum (Citation1983, 538). In Systems Ecology he provides some direct comparisons with systems dynamics modelling, including a one-to-one comparison of symbols (Odum Citation1983, 86), and a number of model comparisons (Odum Citation1983, 87, 185, 393, 550) including a systems model of the well-known World Model of Forrester and Meadows (Odum Citation1983, 569).20 The cybernetics revolution began with the concept of negative feedback. Many scientists of biology, psychology, neurophysiology, business organization, engineering, and others saw great promise in the concept. Forrester was one of them, and not surprisingly, his Systems Dynamics modeling software and diagramming language emphasizes feedback – negative, and also positive. Negative feedback was seen as key to neuron physiology and related learning behavior. Odum offered a strikingly different view of negative feedback. It is in fact difficult to find negative feedback in one of his systems diagrams or simulations, though it is present in nearly every diagram, wherever there is a concentration of energy or materials. Negative feedback is the dispersing outflow from a storage or concentration (Odum Citation1983, 179). A storage is built with work inflows. Negative feedback is a drain that slows or halts that growth by draining the storage at some rate, eventually balancing inflow with outflow. Thus, as negative feedback in other diagramming systems, it achieves stability or balance.The reason for this contrasting view of negative feedback is fundamental to Odum’s theoretical understanding of energy systems. He gave negative feedback a much more marginal role within energy systems that are expected to capture energy and self-organize when energy sources are available. In energy systems models, energy is a forcing function that enters or creates a system. Within that system, positive feedback is an energy flow that interacts with energy inputs, capturing, directing, and amplifying their flow. Energy systems are created, animated, driven by concentrations of energy, which is a directional force from concentration to dissipation, per the Second Law. Therefore, his systems modeling is centered on energy sources, storages, and flows, and feedback control from storages is typically positive, amplifying feedback. Negative feedback, where it appears in his modeling, is primarily to limit or stabilize growth.The adage, energy flows, and materials cycle is profoundly evident in every model. In a common pattern, energy sources from outside of the system window enter and interact with storages of materials within the window. Each interaction is an energy transformation processes, which results in the dissipation of energy flowing to a heat sink at the bottom of the window, and the production of new storages or flows of energy or material products. Dispersed excess materials recycle toward background concentrations where they may be captured and used again in the future. This model could be plant production, consumption, and recycle, it could be the organization of a city, it could describe a manufacturing process, or it could be the convergence of lead into wetlands.21 Odum put it this way, “The geobiosphere builds and maintains structural storages with productive work … When inputs decrease, nonliving structures dissipate, and later if energy inputs are again available, self-organization has to start over. With information the products of self-organization carry over from one episode of growth to another, making life, progress, and evolution possible” (Odum Citation2007, 221).22 Of diversity, Odum says, “Ecosystems package their biochemistry within the species, each one being different and each one occupying a different pathway of processing of materials and energy. The more diversity there is in the biochemistry, the more special abilities there are to generate products and mineralize wastes” (Odum Citation2007, 369).23 “Apparently, humans evolved from earlier animal stages with a fundamentally greater ability to be reprogrammed by environmental conditions. This ability allowed humans to become the ecosystem’s computer program today, the ecosystem’s AI, readily organized and programmed with behavior to feed back control, maximize power, and compete. The human species gradually moved along the energy-quality scale – to the right in energy diagrams today, cultural evolution and its product is ‘cumulative culture’. Humans became the main programming entities for new kinds of ecosystems such as systems of hunting and gathering, cattle grazing, and fishing given in this chapter. Emerging with the new ability to program were new mechanisms of controls, such as economic motivations money closed-loop reinforcement, family altruism, alloparenting, government formal laws, and religion. The social structure and programs are called culture” (Odum Citation1983, 508).24 In Environment, Power, and Society, Odum gives a number of examples of cultural control in the energetic organization of society. A law is a control pathway, often turning actions on or off (Odum Citation2007, 292). Money is a “loop reward selector” that provides immediate reward to people for their services provided to a process (Odum Citation2007, 255). Presented in Odum (Citation2007, 295) are diagrams of control loops for different forms of government, simple, totalitarian, and democratic. As an example, imperial Rome is diagrammed with Roman legions controlling trade with force assuring grain deliveries to the Roman population (Odum Citation2007, 294). Symbols of Rome are shown feeding-back to reinforce the Legions. Finally, Odum presents a chapter on the role of religion in social control. Religion is understood to provide society with programs of learned behavior, a book of principles social norms, for controlling, guiding, and motivating people, reinforcing their behavior with feelings of security (Odum Citation2007, 313). In a hierarchical control structure, religions need leaders and institutions to train and indoctrinate people with shared principles (Odum Citation2007, 316–317). Religion is seen to unite people for group protection and unified actions (Odum Citation2007, 314).25 Here are some examples of Odum’s use of “operate”. Also, notice the prominent place of “operate systems” in Figure 1 in which the system is “operated” by the “shared information” in the storage above it. “More emergy is required to extract the information from the system it operates into a compact form suitable for transmission or transport” (Odum Citation1996, 223). “When a tree reproduces, the genetic information that operates the whole tree is extracted in the form of seed and transmitted for dispersal and reproduction” (Odum Citation1996, 223). “The information may be in an operating system, or extracted and stored in compact form in a plan or code” (Odum Citation1996, 220).26 In a systems diagram of nature and feedbacks from culture (Odum Citation1983, 508), “notice that there are feedbacks of embodied high-quality energies in the form of amplifier actions, nutrient controls, selection, pulsing consumption, and many other controlling actions. Surviving systems are observed to have a good closed loop of service from the environmental components to humanity and humanity back to the landscape ecosystems. Survival probably requires closed-loop actions. Systems without the feedback services from humanity are drained compared to alternatives and are displaced”.27 Within two pages, Odum restates this idea in several forms, “shared operational programs”, “learned programs of dedicated behavior”, “programs of learned human behavior”, and “set of programmed functions” (Odum Citation2007, 313–314). Related to the function of religion, it is most clearly stated here, “Religion consists of programs of learned human behavior shared with other people and taught in religious institutions controlled by religious leaders” (Odum Citation2007, 313). More references to programs and programming are in note 21, above. One more example is “programmed sequences” in Odum (Citation2007, 224). The phrase “shared program” dates Odum’s writing. Today perhaps a better phrase would be “cultural models” (Holland and Quinn Citation1987).28 I have located four instances where Odum uses the word “ideas”. In Environmental Accounting there is a simple reference, without explanation, “Centers of business information, religious symbols, and high-technology ideas increasingly have become the highest level of the hierarchy of urban civilization” (Odum Citation1996, 235). In Environment, Power, and Society, there is one instance related to learning that I will discuss in the (Odum Citation2007, and in note in his of religion, I find one to the of a shared of learned human in religion. Here Odum that the program in the of the religion. He says, there is a book of which has ideas or examples that to the many stages of society including and (Odum Citation2007, 313). I find these to be In these there are probably Odum to information in the that most of find and Information is or The ideas are components of the learned programs of control. When I of information scales of and social I typically the transmission of I it is possible that Odum as components of his shared though he would refer to the larger of a that operates as a of The became the of Odum’s understanding of the dynamics of systems, an view that it. it is as the view of environmental scientists for their systems. on this in the It is a it the idea of growth followed by (Odum Citation1999a, Odum proposed one more of the information cycle that he called the (Odum Citation2007, This model has a number of and that will not be here, but are the of a paper, In of science as an information Odum says, is the system that science from by that not loop reinforcement from real off into but Both units are the idea and the (Odum Citation2007, note for of the This model and diagram are typically used by the emergy as a of for It provided a on the education level for the but for emergy of contemporary economic that level of is One attempt has been to for occupations and used Odum’s model of learning that I will discuss in the The of the product of an energy transformation process is the of the by the energy in the are per When the product is information, the energy is the energy of the of the information, such as sound waves, electromagnetic or the and paper of a can be said to a process in the energy transformation This concept especially in Odum’s of the function of information information religious of shared operational programs in each that can all operate together for a common (Odum Citation2007, the of “shared and in note He says, “The information society is developing an analogous process in which the amount of information on the to be and have been (Odum Citation2007, of view and the model of Figure Odum is scales of the hierarchy of cultural information. The is information in and with of books by to which books and as information with long in The scale has been with emergy in In this of is to as a in to a typically use an emergy that is for a large such as an or a and they included people and information within their are typically a instance of production from within a much smaller such as a or and human and information are inputs to the system. Information are in as we here in the Odum also two of human on emergy in the is even is the are for populations in small one in (Odum Citation1996, and the other (Odum Citation1999a, 235). The that makes these of is that Odum’s is one value for each the populations were not by an education hierarchy. In the first example, he that the information emergy carrier was of human energy, in the second he used which for human information. that emergy are The is to produce the results possible and With many processes in the it is to that can to some to be This has been an of some to the emergy Beginning with and have been to or human the by the education system and the students including an developed by and and adopted by and by and In an earlier paper it was that human the would inputs from many processes, not These the inputs from and families, and they the of people in their In other inputs education were such as inputs from religion, and which will be discussed later in this With the discussed in the emergy it is that both approaches are In it is that for information need to be in are that populations within an Odum’s be the It is that a of could an I am the in Odum’s systems will not long energy their products feed back to and maximum most work that is is where useful means that the product or service is to other parts of the system as to reinforce and system (Odum Citation1987, The of for functional of cultural behavior has a long tradition in the social perhaps most by the of cultural and the of energy, economy, and population all that have in the maximum empower This is a While energy production to due to the of in the with a emergy for all of production, especially and with the emergy per is in will maximum empower It could be that is its emergy to the that can be observed Perhaps is to in which a of every to in a is Finally, as of this it appears that has in the as a to and leaders are the to more to an It would that the to has and that with it may than Here is what I said in possesses of human and energy inputs, cycle time and that result in of and force that it. While a information cycle with a it is the product of and perhaps of not the we are taught in which has of the in new processes and that and that have to a of The of this of information forms is to be It was from on the in the time, territory, etc. It is not expected that form the but that these forms are or for In Environmental Odum the as flows of the are organized in an energy transformation (Odum Citation1996, Energy transformation processes are to each other in a or An example is an ecosystem or but in all energy transformation processes are into a Odum the energy known can be in a series to the of one of energy required for the Odum proposed this hierarchical self-organization of energy systems as the energy law (Odum Citation2007, Odum and are a