Semantic Information and the City

Abstract

This chapter should be seen as “Part Two” of the discussion on information theory in the previous chapter. In both chapters we discuss Shannonian and semantic information and as we’ll see immediately, these two kinds of information are interdependent. However, while in Chap. 8 the emphasis was on Shannonian information and the city, here the emphasis is on semantic information and the city. The discussion below starts by showing the way these two notions of information are interdependent (Sect. 9.2). Next, Sect. 9.3 looks at several processes that are associated with semantic information, namely, at pattern recognition, grouping, categorization and self-organization. Section 9.4 that forms the core of the whole chapter examines the implications to information theory, cognition, pragmatic information, urban elements, SIRN and the notion of information adaptation. Finally, the concluding chapter looks at what has been achieved and indicates future research directions.

by Hermann Haken and the author.