Informavore
Encyclopedia
The term informavore characterizes an organism that consumes information
. It is meant to be a description of human behavior in modern information society, in comparison to omnivore
, as a description of humans consuming food. George A. Miller
coined the term in 1983 as an analogy to how organisms survive by consuming negative entropy
(as suggested by Erwin Schrödinger
). Miller states, "Just as the body survives by ingesting negative entropy, so the mind survives by ingesting information. In a very general sense, all higher organisms are informavores."
An early use of the term was in a newspaper article by Jonathan Chevreau
where he quotes a speech made by Zenon Pylyshyn
. Soon after, the term appeared in the introduction of Pylyshyn's seminal book on Cognitive Science
, Computation and Cognition
.
More recently the term has been popularized by philosopher Daniel Dennett
in his book Kinds of Minds
and by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker
.
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
. It is meant to be a description of human behavior in modern information society, in comparison to omnivore
Omnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...
, as a description of humans consuming food. George A. Miller
coined the term in 1983 as an analogy to how organisms survive by consuming negative entropy
Entropy
Entropy is a thermodynamic property that can be used to determine the energy available for useful work in a thermodynamic process, such as in energy conversion devices, engines, or machines. Such devices can only be driven by convertible energy, and have a theoretical maximum efficiency when...
(as suggested by Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
). Miller states, "Just as the body survives by ingesting negative entropy, so the mind survives by ingesting information. In a very general sense, all higher organisms are informavores."
An early use of the term was in a newspaper article by Jonathan Chevreau
where he quotes a speech made by Zenon Pylyshyn
Zenon Pylyshyn
Zenon Pylyshyn is a Canadian cognitive scientist and philosopher.He holds degrees in Engineering-Physics from McGill University and in Control Systems and Experimental Psychology , both from the University of Saskatchewan. His dissertation was on the application of information theory to studies...
. Soon after, the term appeared in the introduction of Pylyshyn's seminal book on Cognitive Science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
, Computation and Cognition
.
More recently the term has been popularized by philosopher Daniel Dennett
Daniel Dennett
Daniel Clement Dennett is an American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the Co-director of...
in his book Kinds of Minds
and by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...
.