Start here · Step 4 of 8
Awareness: when information starts to matter
Information by itself is just structure in the world. Awareness is what happens when a system responds to information in ways that make a difference to how it continues. At that point, some informational states are effectively “better” for the system than others — the seed of value is already present.
A thermostat’s “awareness”
Take a simple thermostat. It has a sensor and a rule: if the temperature drops below a certain point, turn the heater on; if it goes above another point, turn it off. The thermostat does not “know” in any human sense, but information about the temperature is being used to guide what happens next.
In IO terms, this already counts as a minimal kind of awareness: the system's internal state changes in a structured way because of information it receives. The information makes a difference to the system's behaviour.
Deeper insight: awareness without mystery
In IO, we don't treat awareness as an all-or-nothing, magical property. Instead, it comes in degrees and depends on how a system uses information about differences in its environment and its own state.
A rock doesn't qualify, because its internal organisation doesn't systematically change to track information. A bacterium, on the other hand, does respond to gradients of chemicals, moving toward nutrients and away from toxins. That's a richer form of awareness than a thermostat, but built on the same basic pattern.
What to carry forward
The key idea from this step:
Awareness is information in use: a system whose behaviour shifts in structured ways because of the information it carries.