What Is an Individual? Biology Seeks Clues in Information Theory.

[Laird]

I think both Sci and nbtruthman allude to a key question here: does this working definition of an individual entail personhood (i.e., awareness from a subjective perspective) or not? The answer would provide a clue into the theory's developers' metaphysical leanings - in particular, whether or not they hold to a sort of animistic/panpsychic worldview in which consciousness and its subjects are ever-present throughout biological reality, or whether life without consciousness - defined by information processing rather than personhood - is possible and even widespread.