Chapter 05 — Need and opportunity • 05.01 — A need specific to humans, Paragraph 2.1 (§05.01.02.01)
As regards the difference between the augmentation and the increase of information processing, augmentation refers to qualitative processing, while an increase occurs mechanically and automatically. A mechanical, blind increase of information processing is caused simply by one day following another in any Being’s life. If life is the ability to process information and all Beings can and will process information whenever given the opportunity, then any processing that they achieve in any new moment of their life automatically increases the volume of their information processing. In other words, their will (as set by their nature) to process information increases their information processing for as long as they remain in existence: (human) life is the sum of information processed. By contrast, the augmentation of information processing is meant to add to it, to increase something that is already well grown. In other words, ‘augmentation’ implies improvement, a qualitative change, the processing of new information—that is, information that has not been processed (by that Being) before. For example, a computer program with the purpose of only processing the same set of phone numbers in order to reply to questions addressed to it (see §02.00.12 on humans setting the purpose for artificial Beings]]), increases its information processing with each new question asked, but does not augment the information it has processed as it does not add anything new to it.
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