An information
processor or information processing system, as its name suggests,
is a
system (be it electrical, mechanical or biological) which takes
information (a
sequence of enumerated
states) in one form and
processes (transforms) it into another form, e.g. to
statistics, by an
algorithmic process.
An information
processing system is made up of four basic parts, or
sub-systems:
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Information Processor
An
object may be considered an information processor if it receives
information from another object and in some manner changes the information
before transmitting it. This broadly defined term can be used to describe
every change which occurs in the universe. As an example, a falling rock
could be considered an information processor due to the following observable
facts:
First,
information in the form of gravitational force from the earth serves as
input to the
system we call a rock. At a particular instant the rock is a specific
distance from the surface of the earth traveling at a specific speed. Both
the current distance and speed properties are also forms of information
which for that instant only may be considered "stored"
in the rock.
In the
next instant, the distance of the rock from the earth has changed due to its
motion under the influence of the earth's gravity. Any time the properties
of an object change a process has occurred meaning that a
processor of some kind is at work. In addition, the rock's new position
and increased speed is observed by us as it falls. These changing properties
of the rock are its "output."
It
could be argued that in this example both the rock and the earth are the
information processing system being observed since both objects are changing
the properties of each other over time. If information is not being
processed no change would occur at all.
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See also
-
Holographic principle - an information processing conjecture about physics
-
black box