ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an analysis of information in the context of learning and communication. Information has been previously analyzed in the context of phylogenetic evolution, suggesting a receiver-centered, functional notion of information. 'Functional information' refers to any difference in the (external or internal) environment of a system that has made a systematic difference to the system's goal-directed (teleological) behavior extending Gregory Bateson's definition of a 'bit of information' as 'a difference which makes a difference'. According to George Price, selection is a sampling process that may or may not involve replication and multiplication, such as the selection involved in trial-and-error learning. The chapter discusses general selection and the Price equation, and suggests that learned, functional information can be measured in Pricean terms. It reviews the relation between functional information and general selection. Biology is full of examples of phenotypic adjustment through exploration-stabilization processes.
