Control Information Theory (CIT) focuses on understanding how information is managed and used to control systems. In any system, whether it’s a biological organism, a machine, or a social organization, control mechanisms use information to maintain stability and achieve goals.
- Control Information (CI): The capacity to use information in acquiring, managing, and utilizing energy for control and feedback processes (cybernetics).
- Human Body: Sensory information such as outside temperature, which the body uses to regulate its internal temperature.
- Civilization: In an ancient agrarian society, control information could be the knowledge of agricultural practices used to manage crop production and food storage.
- Control Mechanism: The structures or processes within a system that use control information to maintain stability and direct system activities.
- Human Body: The brain and neurons that process sensory information and regulate bodily functions.
- Civilization: Bureaucracies in early civilizations like Ancient Egypt, which used administrative processes to manage resources and coordinate large-scale projects such as pyramid construction.
- Feedback Loops: Cycles through which a system monitors its output and adjusts its functions based on this information to achieve desired outcomes.
- Human Body: The insulin-glucose feedback loop, where the pancreas adjusts insulin production based on blood sugar levels to maintain homeostasis.
- Civilization: A government adjusting tax policies based on economic performance to stabilize the economy and promote growth.
CIT posits that all living systems, whether biological or biocultural, possess “control information.” Traditional information theory, as proposed by Shannon (1948), measures information by its quantity (bits) and tends to ignore its functional aspects. However, CIT argues that this approach is insufficient for understanding living systems, as it overlooks the content and meaning embedded in information that living systems use for purposeful control and feedback activities.
In CIT, the “amount” of control information is not merely about the quantity of data, it reflects a living system’s power to use information to control available energy for purposeful activities. For example, the human brain’s ability to process and interpret vast amounts of sensory data to make decisions is not just about the volume of information it handles. It’s about how this information is used to perform complex tasks such as maintaining homeostasis.
This theory is in direct contrast with global economic theories which often emphasize quantitative growth—measured in terms of GDP, resource extraction, and consumption—as the ultimate goal. CIT shows that it is not about the amount of information or energy, but how this information or energy is purposefully organized. This perspective underscores the need for systems that organize materials and energy for effectively and maintain civilizational homeostasis.