The most important empirical principles relating to the concept of information have been defined in the form of theorems. Here is a brief summary of them:
1. Information cannot exist without a code.
2. Code cannot exist without a free and deliberate convention.
3. Information cannot exist without the five hierarchical levels: statistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and apobetics.
4. Information cannot exist in purely statistical processes.
5. Information cannot exist without a transmitter.
6. Information chain cannot exist without a mental origin.
7. Information cannot exist without an initial mental source; that is, information is, by its nature, a mental and not a material quantity.
8. Information cannot exist without a will.
Since the stuff I see around me is not necessarily encoded, does this mean my observations do not constitute information?