Biology - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 95

An important corollary of Statement 4.25 is:
Information and energy cannot be interconverted . (4.26)

Statement 4.26 may be referred to as the Principle of Information-Energy
Independence (PIEI), which is consistent with the Principle of Information-Energy
Complementarity (PIEC) discussed in Sect. 2.3.2 .
One of the most fundamental assumptions made in this topic is that information
(simply defined as the ability to select or to control, given free energy dissipation)
and energy (the ability to do work, including selecting) are complementary aspects
of a third entity called “gnergy” (Ji 1991) (see Sect. 2.3.2 ) . The complementary
relation between information and energy is a rather novel notion, and it is neither
widely known nor widely accepted by contemporary scientists and thinkers. There
are three schools of

thoughts concerning the relation between energy and

information :
1. The monadic school

(a) Energy and information are identical. Brillouin's “Negentropy Principle of
Information” (NPI) may represent the most widely discussed example of this
school of thought (Brillouin 1953, 1956; Collier 1999; Leff and Rex 1962).
(b) Energy is primary and information is derivable from it.
(c) Information is primary and energy can be derived from it.

2. The dyadic school
Energy and information are two separable and distinct primary entities on an
equal footing. Two variations of this school may be recognized—

(a) Energy and information are distinct and cannot be interconverted. Bohmian
quantum mechanics (Bohm and Hiley 1993) and Laszlo's (2003) “connec-
tivity hypothesis” may belong to this school.
(b) Energy and information are distinct but can be interconverted (Bennett
1991; Layzer 1975), which would contradict Statement 4.26, the Principle
of Information-Energy Independence.
3. The triadic school
Energy and information are the two complementary aspects of a third entity.
Spinoza's and Merleau-Ponty's ontologies seem to exemplify this school of
thought. Spinoza (Scruton 1999; Curley 1994) referred to the third entity as
S ubstance (also called Nature or God ), while Merleau-Ponty referred to it as
Flesh (Dillon 1997).
The information-energy complementarity thesis discussed in Sect. 2.3.2 belongs
to the triadic school of thought and is supported by the following observations:

1. The units of energy (e.g., Kcal/mole) and information (e.g., bits) are different.
2. The energy of the Universe is constant (the First Law of Thermodynamics) but the
information content of the Universe may not nor needs be constant, as illustrated by
the extinction of innumerable biological species including Dinosaurs .