<ZITAT>
At least from the scientific point of view, information appears as a
vague and incoherent item. Information belongs to that (not so rare)
category of scientific terms which, after their successful coinage,
suffer so much abuse and overextension that a factual abandonment of
research ensues, no matter the apparent brilliancy or social
acceptance. In the case of information, the scientific excitement
generated during the 40's and 50's -- the formative years of
information theory, cybernetics, systems theory, etc. -- has
steadfastly receded with every passing decade and presently has
almost disappeared, except for some very particular applications.
The FIS-Organisation attempts to rescue information as a central
scientific tool and to put it into a new context so as to serve as a
basis for a fundamental disciplinary development. The novelty of our
approach is that, instead of trying a precise 'atomic' definition of
information, and actually getting quagmired in it, information is
understood as related to a widespread network of processes
potentially involving the integration of cosmic (subatomic),
molecular, cellular (neuronal), computational, human and social
occurrences, demanding both a unifying and a multiperspectivistic
approach. So to speak, instead of the discussion of a single
particularized concept, information becomes the intellectual
adventure of developing a 'vertical' science connecting the
different scales of 'informational processes' -- reminding physics
itself, which from a pre-Galilean particularized term evolved
towards a vertical science connecting the previously separated
"celestial", "sublunar", and "terrestrial" occurrences.