---
_id: '7431'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: 'In many real-world systems, information can be transmitted in two qualitatively
    different ways: by copying or by transformation. Copying occurs when messages
    are transmitted without modification, e.g. when an offspring receives an unaltered
    copy of a gene from its parent. Transformation occurs when messages are modified
    systematically during transmission, e.g. when mutational biases occur during genetic
    replication. Standard information-theoretic measures do not distinguish these
    two modes of information transfer, although they may reflect different mechanisms
    and have different functional consequences. Starting from a few simple axioms,
    we derive a decomposition of mutual information into the information transmitted
    by copying versus the information transmitted by transformation. We begin with
    a decomposition that applies when the source and destination of the channel have
    the same set of messages and a notion of message identity exists. We then generalize
    our decomposition to other kinds of channels, which can involve different source
    and destination sets and broader notions of similarity. In addition, we show that
    copy information can be interpreted as the minimal work needed by a physical copying
    process, which is relevant for understanding the physics of replication. We use
    the proposed decomposition to explore a model of amino acid substitution rates.
    Our results apply to any system in which the fidelity of copying, rather than
    simple predictability, is of critical relevance.'
acknowledgement: "AK was supported by Grant No. FQXi-RFP-1622 from the FQXi foundation,
  and Grant No. CHE-1648973 from the U.S.\r\nNational Science Foundation. AK would
  like to thank the Santa Fe Institute for supporting this research. The authors\r\nthank
  Jordi Fortuny, Rudolf Hanel, Joshua Garland, and Blai Vidiella for helpful discussions,
  as well as the anonymous\r\nreviewers for their insightful suggestions. "
article_number: '0623'
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Artemy
  full_name: Kolchinsky, Artemy
  last_name: Kolchinsky
- first_name: Bernat
  full_name: Corominas-Murtra, Bernat
  id: 43BE2298-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Corominas-Murtra
  orcid: 0000-0001-9806-5643
citation:
  ama: Kolchinsky A, Corominas-Murtra B. Decomposing information into copying versus
    transformation. <i>Journal of the Royal Society Interface</i>. 2020;17(162). doi:<a
    href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2019.0623">10.1098/rsif.2019.0623</a>
  apa: Kolchinsky, A., &#38; Corominas-Murtra, B. (2020). Decomposing information
    into copying versus transformation. <i>Journal of the Royal Society Interface</i>.
    The Royal Society. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2019.0623">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2019.0623</a>
  chicago: Kolchinsky, Artemy, and Bernat Corominas-Murtra. “Decomposing Information
    into Copying versus Transformation.” <i>Journal of the Royal Society Interface</i>.
    The Royal Society, 2020. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2019.0623">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2019.0623</a>.
  ieee: A. Kolchinsky and B. Corominas-Murtra, “Decomposing information into copying
    versus transformation,” <i>Journal of the Royal Society Interface</i>, vol. 17,
    no. 162. The Royal Society, 2020.
  ista: Kolchinsky A, Corominas-Murtra B. 2020. Decomposing information into copying
    versus transformation. Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 17(162), 0623.
  mla: Kolchinsky, Artemy, and Bernat Corominas-Murtra. “Decomposing Information into
    Copying versus Transformation.” <i>Journal of the Royal Society Interface</i>,
    vol. 17, no. 162, 0623, The Royal Society, 2020, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2019.0623">10.1098/rsif.2019.0623</a>.
  short: A. Kolchinsky, B. Corominas-Murtra, Journal of the Royal Society Interface
    17 (2020).
date_created: 2020-02-02T23:01:03Z
date_published: 2020-01-29T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2023-08-17T14:31:28Z
day: '29'
department:
- _id: EdHa
doi: 10.1098/rsif.2019.0623
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '1903.10693'
  isi:
  - '000538369800002'
  pmid:
  - '31964273'
intvolume: '        17'
isi: 1
issue: '162'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.10693
month: '01'
oa: 1
oa_version: Preprint
pmid: 1
publication: Journal of the Royal Society Interface
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - '17425662'
publication_status: published
publisher: The Royal Society
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Decomposing information into copying versus transformation
type: journal_article
user_id: 4359f0d1-fa6c-11eb-b949-802e58b17ae8
volume: 17
year: '2020'
...