Overview

Information and dynamics are key terms in many contemporary directions of research in numerous fields. Basic frarneworks in this regard are information theory and the theory of dynamical systems. The origin of both areas essentially dates back into the 20s of this century. An excellent presentation of the history of information theory from its early days (e.g, Nyquist, Hartley) until to the 70s has been given by J.R. Pierce et al. in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory IT-19 (1973). System theory, the other branch mentioned above, also started with first publications in the 20s (e.g., Köhler, Lotka). A historical sketch can be found in 1. v. Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory (Braziller, Ncw York, 1968), the main body ofwhich presents a proper introduction into the main concepts and applications. At present, both branches, information theory and system theory, are hardly sepa- rable any more. Aspects of both appcar in cybernetics, contral theory, communication theory, computer science, game theory, cognitive science, and related fields. Combin- ing knowledge of various individual scientific disciplines, they are particularly useful to deal with problems of basically intcrdisciplinary character.