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Planetary Scale Information Transmission in the Biosphere and Technosphere: Limits and Evolution
Manasvi Lingam1,2, Adam Frank3, Amedeo Balbi4
1Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USA.
Life (Basel, Switzerland)
|September 28, 2023
Summary
Global information flow in the biosphere is estimated at 10^24 bits/s. While the biosphere currently transmits significantly more information than the technosphere, the technosphere may surpass it within 90 years due to exponential growth.
Area of Science:
- Earth systems science
- Information theory
- Global ecology
Background:
- Information transmission is fundamental to Earth's living systems (biosphere) and human-made systems (technosphere).
- Quantifying global information flow is crucial for understanding system dynamics and future trajectories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To estimate and compare the global information transmission rates of the biosphere and technosphere.
- To model the future dominance of information flow between these two systems.
Main Methods:
- Development of a heuristic, order-of-magnitude model for global information transmission.
- Estimation of salient parameters using conservative values for current systems.
Main Results:
- The biosphere's global information transmission rate is estimated at approximately 10^24 bits/s.
- The biosphere's current information transmission rate may exceed the technosphere's by about nine orders of magnitude.
- Under sustained exponential growth, the technosphere's information transmission rate could surpass the biosphere's within approximately 90 years.
Conclusions:
- The biosphere currently dominates global information flow.
- The technosphere's rapid growth suggests a potential future shift in information dominance.
- This study provides a framework for quantifying and comparing information flow in complex global systems.
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