The philosophy of information (PI) is a branch of philosophy that studies topics relevant to information processing, representational system and consciousness, cognitive science, computer science, information science and information technology. It includes: the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation and sciences the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. History The philosophy of information (PI) has evolved from the philosophy of artificial intelligence, logic of information, cybernetics, social theory, ethics and the study of language and information. Logic of information The logic of information, also known as the logical theory of information, considers the information content of logical signs and expressions along the lines initially developed by Charles Sanders Peirce. Cybernetics One source for the philosophy of information can be found in the technical work of Norbert Wiener, Alan Turing (though his work has a wholly different origin and theoretical framework), William Ross Ashby, Claude Shannon, Warren Weaver, and many other scientists working on computing and information theory back in the early 1950s. See the main article on Cybernetics. Some important work on information and communication was done by Gregory Bateson and his colleagues. Stafford Beer sought to apply the theory of cybernetics to an economy in the 1971 Chilean economic experiment Project Cybersyn. Study of language and information Later contributions to the field were made by Fred Dretske, Jon Barwise, Brian Cantwell Smith, and others. The Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) was founded at Stanford University in 1983 by philosophers, computer scientists, linguists, and psychologists, under the direction of John Perry and Jon Barwise. P.I. More recently this field has become known as the philosophy of information. The expression was coined in the 1990s by Luciano Floridi, who has published prolifically in this area with the intention of elaborating a unified and coherent, conceptual frame for the whole subject. Definitions of "information" The concept information has been defined by several theorists. Peirce Charles S. Peirce's theory of information was embedded in his wider theory of symbolic communication he called the semeiotic, now a major part of semiotics. For Peirce, information integrates the aspects of signs and expressions separately covered by the concepts of denotation and extension, on the one hand, and by connotation and comprehension on the other. Shannon and Weaver Claude E. Shannon, for his part, was very cautious: "The word