Information flow and processing in anticipatory systems

Although anticipatory systems are frequently found in many natural phenomena, formal logic and reasoning (by implication) have not been successful in analyzing these systems. Robert Rosen, in his seminal work on anticipatory and complex systems, categorized these systems as those that cannot be modeled by formal reasoning based on implication and further traced their connections to Newtonian formalism where causality is replaced by implication. Rosen demonstrated his modeling relation in the context of mechanics (R. Rosen, 1985; 1991). The author examines information flows in these systems, and explores the system in the communication and computation context. It is concluded that existing communication and computation theories in common with physics/mechanics are missing the “final cause” category defined by Aristotle!