Starting with a paper that summarizes the hypotheses about the evolution of information processing systems, a team of international scientists attempt to verify or falsify the hypothesis that all existing structures on Earth are the consequence of information processing.

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An interdisciplinary team of scientists currently present a new paradigm: all existing structures on Earth are the consequence of information processing. Since these structures have been evolved over the past five billion years, information processing and its systems have an evolution. This is the subject matter under consideration in the book. Starting with a basic paper which summarizes the essential hypothesis about the evolution of information processing systems, a group of scientists have tried to verify or falsify these hypotheses. This has been done at the physical, the chemical, the genetic, the neural, the social, the societal and the socio-technical level. Thus, the reader gets an insight into the recent status of research on the evolution of information processing systems. The papers are the result of an interdisciplinary project in which scientists of the classical disciplines have been invited to collaborate. The first goal of the book is to give the reader an insight into basic principles about the evolution of information processing systems. This, however, leads to a very old and essential question: who is controlling the world, 'matter' or an 'immaterial intelligence'? Several authors of the papers argue that there is a basic concept of information processing in nature. This is the crucial process, which, however, needs a material basis. The reader has a chance to understand this paradigm as an approach which is valid for all levels of inorganic, organic and societal structures.