We hear the word information everywhere – in talk about “data-driven decision-making,” on social media, and in the endless gathering of data for advertising. But what does it actually mean? This course takes a step back to think of information not as something we merely collect or store, but as what holds systems together. It is the circulation of information that allows things to respond, adapt, and stay coherent in a changing world. Every form of life, every social group, every technical network depends on these exchanges that link perception with action, cause with effect, order with renewal.

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Today, information is often dismissed as background noise, but in reality it is the opposite of noise. It is what resists chaos long enough for meaning, form, and organization to exist. When the flow of information is blocked or distorted - when communication turns into control, or when knowledge is hoarded instead of shared - disorder returns in new and often invisible ways. Thinking about information, then, means thinking about the fragile balance between openness and regulation, between learning and domination.

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In this course we trace how the modern sense of information came to be understood, not just as a tool for communication but as a living process that animates different forms of organization – biological, social, and technical. To study information in this sense is to study the very movement through which life and technology evolve together, adjusting, transforming, and creating new forms of order.

What will we cover?