Developed from presentations given at the Cerisy SVSI (Sciences de la vie, sciences de l'information) conference held in 2016, this book presents a broad overview of thought and research at the intersection of life sciences and information sciences.
The contributors to this edited volume explore life and information on an equal footing, with each considered as crucial to the other. In the first part of the book, the relation of life and information in the functioning of genes, at both the phylogenetic and ontogenetic levels, is articulated and the common understanding of DNA as code is problematized from a range of perspectives. The second part of the book homes in on the algorithmic nature of information, questioning the fit between life and automaton and the accompanying division between individualization and invariance.
Consisting of both philosophical speculation and ethological research, the explorations in this book are a timely intervention into prevailing understandings of the relation between information and life.
About the Author: Thierry Gaudin is an engineer at MINES ParisTech and holds a doctorate in Information Sciences and Communication from Paris Nanterre University. He is a widely renowned expert in innovation policy and has worked with the OECD, European Commission and the World Bank.
Dominique Lacroix is a web publisher and photographer. After studying Classics at the University of Nice in France, she acquired diverse experience in multimedia. She is a co-founder, with Thierry Gaudin, of the 2100 Foundation.
Marie-Christine Maurel is Professor at Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) and the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Her research focuses on the informational and catalytic properties of DNA and RNA and their role in the origin of life.
Jean-Charles Pomerol is a specialist in Decision Support Systems and former project leader for information technology in the Engineering Sciences Department at the CNRS. He was formerly in charge of the Artificial Intelligence laboratory at UPMC, Paris, as well as being the President of UPMC between 2006 and 2011.
