I. Introduction:

The Revelation of Information Parasitism

The Lunar New Year is a deeply significant time for Chinese families—a moment of reunion and reflection. On this day, after the New Year’s Eve dinner, families set aside the busyness and fatigue of the past year to sit together, face to face, and engage in heartfelt conversations. In the spring of 2025, after our reunion meal, I found myself in such a moment with my younger son, who was home from university. During our post-dinner chat, he unexpectedly asked me a profound ontological question.

He said, “Dad, you’ve lived for quite some time now—what is your insight into the meaning of life? Do you believe there’s a purpose to human existence?”

This question struck at the core of being and awakened a long-held intuition within me. After a moment of reflection, I replied:

“I believe we humans are essentially carriers of information—vessels through which certain forms of information are transmitted across generations. The unit of this information transmission evolves over time. It’s not just the amount of biological information encoded in our DNA, but also includes the additional layers of information we carry and create through intelligence, language, culture, and technology.”

This idea wasn’t something I had read in academic literature. Perhaps others have proposed similar concepts, but before I had ever searched for them, the thought had already been lingering in my mind. It wasn’t a definitive conclusion, but rather a slowly emerging framework for thinking.

From this perspective of information transmission, I developed another personal hypothesis—could it be that we are living in a state of Information Parasitism, a phenomenon not yet fully understood?

In biology, parasitism refers to a survival strategy in which one organism (the parasite) relies on another (the host) to extract the energy it needs to survive. Could there be a corresponding mechanism in our increasingly information-dependent digital world—where certain information “parasites” our intelligence and systems? Could such information consume resources, influence decisions, or even begin to dominate consciousness?

Take, for example, modern AI systems. We now observe that different tokens—units of information—have varying probabilities of being generated by the model. Some tokens are far more likely to appear than others. Certain combinations of information are more readily produced, amplified, and propagated. Does this suggest that, deep within algorithms, certain forms of information are equipped with a kind of preferential reproduction mechanism? Could this be the early signs of a digital form of parasitism?

As large language models and generative AI technologies evolve at breakneck speed, more and more technology leaders are beginning to worry: could these systems eventually spiral beyond our control? The concern is not only about algorithmic bias but also the tremendous energy required to sustain them. If the energy consumption of AI systems surpasses that of basic human needs, will energy itself become a point of competition between humans and machines?

All of this has led me to believe that “information parasitism” is more than just a metaphor—it could be a fundamental lens for understanding how our contemporary and future worlds operate. While the word “parasitism” often carries negative connotations, stepping outside of moral or value judgments reveals that it is, in fact, one of the most efficient and widespread survival strategies in biology. From this angle, it can help us reexamine the human role and meaning in the midst of the vast information tide—and perhaps even reignite our pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Biological Parasitism and Its Analogy to Information Parasitism

In biological terms, parasitism is defined as a relationship in which one organism benefits by deriving nutrients from another, usually to the detriment of the host. This relationship can take various forms:

• Endoparasitism: Parasites live inside the host’s body (e.g., roundworms, Plasmodium).
• Ectoparasitism: Parasites live on the host’s exterior (e.g., fleas, lice).
• Permanent parasitism: The parasite depends on the host for its entire life cycle (e.g., some worms).
• Temporary parasitism: The parasite only depends on the host during a specific life stage (e.g., blood-sucking insects).

These mechanisms play crucial roles in ecosystems and evolution:

• Regulating population balance
• Promoting biodiversity and co-evolution
• Driving evolutionary adaptation

If we map these biological principles onto the world of information, can we observe similar patterns?

A Preliminary Definition of Information Parasitism

The concept of Information Parasitism that I propose can be explored from three key dimensions:

1. Information exists only through a host: Information itself is invisible, but it needs to “survive" and “reproduce" through biological brains, artificial intelligence or cultural carriers. Referring to Popple’s “Speculation and Refutation" on the development of scientific knowledge in the process of knowledge evolution, it provides a framework on how information (speculation) is tested (refuted) and adjusted (evolution), which can be analogous to the process of “screening" and “adjusting" by the receiver (host) in the process of dissemination.
2. Information consumes the host’s energy or resources: For instance, social media content captures human attention (a cognitive resource), while large AI models demand substantial energy and data storage to operate.
3. Information evolves to enhance its own propagation: Specific types of information (such as viral marketing language, conspiracy theories, emotional language) are more likely to be transmitted, strengthened and amplified. Compared with the continuous creation and mutation guided and driven by the so-called “life impulse" of philosopher Bergson, is it easier to be transmitted, strengthened and amplified to ignite the pursuit of “truth, goodness and beauty"?

Just as biological parasitism has different mechanisms on different hosts, information may also produce different parasitic patterns on different carriers (human brain, community platform, AI model). Through this book, I hope to lead readers to start from the parasitic phenomenon of biology and gradually explore the possible parasitic relationship between information and intelligence in the digital age. This is not only a philosophical reflection, but also a new perspective on how we coexist with artificial intelligence in the future. Information is not always neutral; parasitic and not necessarily negative. In this era of turbulence and information explosion, perhaps what we need more is a new language and perspective to think about whether we are the masters or hosts of information.

前言：資訊寄生的啟示

中國人的農曆新年，是家族團圓的重要時刻。這一天，在年夜飯後，一家人放下了一年的忙碌與辛勞，圍坐一堂，以面對面的方式，彼此交流、傾聽與分享。2025年新春，我與就讀大學的小兒子，在飯後閒談時，他忽然問了我一個令人深思的本體論問題。

他說：「爸爸，你活到現在，對生命的意義有什麼體悟？你相信人類存在的意義是什麼？」

這個問題不但直指存在的核心，也觸發了我長久以來潛藏在心中的某種直覺。我沉思了一會，回答他說：

「我認為，我們人類，不過是資訊的載體。一代又一代地承載並傳遞某些形式的資訊。而這個『資訊承載單位』，是會隨時間而改變的。它的變化，不僅限於我們體內DNA所儲存的生物資訊量，更包括我們透過智能、語言、文化、科技等所額外承載與創造的資訊。」

這樣的想法，其實我從未在任何文獻中看過，也許某些學者已經提出過相似的理論，但在我查閱之前，它就一直在我腦海中盤旋。這不是某個明確結論，而是一種逐漸成形的思維方向。

從這個資訊承載的視角出發，我又延伸出另一個猜想——我們是否可能正處於一種尚未被充分理解的**資訊寄生（Information Parasitism）**的狀態之中？

生物學上的寄生，是某個生物為了獲取生存所需的能量，依附在另一個生物身上。那麼，在我們這個愈來愈依賴資訊的數位社會裡，有沒有一種對應的機制，是某些資訊正在「寄生」在我們的智能與系統中？而這些資訊是否會佔據資源、影響決策、甚至主導意識？

舉個例子，在人工智慧系統中，我們可以看到不同的 token（資訊單位）在模型中被生成的機率是有差異的。有些 token 的出現機率遠高於其他，有些特定的資訊組合，無論如何都比其他的更容易被產出、強化與傳播。這是否意味著，在演算法的深層之中，某些資訊擁有一種「偏好性繁殖」的機制？這種機制，又是否正逐漸構成某種形式的資訊寄生？

隨著大型語言模型與生成式AI的高速發展，越來越多的科技領導者開始擔憂：這些系統是否可能最終失控？不僅是演算法偏見，更是背後龐大的能源需求。若AI系統的能耗超越日常生活的基本需求，能源是否會成為人機之間的資源競爭點？

而這一切，讓我深信「資訊寄生」不僅是個有趣的隱喻，更可能是一個理解當代與未來世界運行架構的核心視角。寄生，或許在人類語言中多半帶有負面含義，但若我們跳出道德與價值的框架，它其實是一種生物界中極其普遍且高效的生存機制。從這個角度來看，它能幫助我們重新審視人類在資訊洪流中的角色與意義，甚至，讓我們重新燃起對「真、善、美」的追求。

生物學中的「寄生」與「資訊寄生」的對應關係

根據生物學定義，**寄生（Parasitism）**是一種一方依賴另一方以獲取生存所需的關係，其中寄生者從宿主身上獲益，而宿主則遭受不同程度的損害。其形式可分為：

1. 內寄生：寄生者生活在宿主體內（如蛔蟲、瘧原蟲）。
2. 外寄生：寄生者生活於宿主體外（如跳蚤、虱子）。
3. 永久性寄生：寄生者整個生命週期皆依附宿主（如某些蠕蟲）。
4. 暫時性寄生：寄生者只在生命的某階段依賴宿主（如吸血昆蟲）。

而這些寄生機制，對生態系統與進化的發展具有關鍵意義：

• 調節種群、維持平衡
• 促進多樣性與共同進化
• 提供演化的壓力與驅動力

這些原理若轉化至資訊世界，我們是否也能觀察到相似的現象？

資訊寄生的定義（初步）

我提出的**資訊寄生（Information Parasitism）**概念，嘗試從以下三個面向思考：

1. 資訊依附主體而存在：資訊本身無形，但需透過生物腦、人工智慧或文化載體來「生存」與「繁殖」。參考波普爾的「猜測與反駁」有關知識進化過程中科學知識的發展，提供了一個關於資訊（猜測）如何被檢驗（反駁）並調整（進化）的框架，這可以類比於資訊在傳播過程中被接收者（宿主）「篩選」和「調整」的過程。
2. 資訊對主體造成能量或資源的消耗：如社群媒體資訊對注意力的佔據、大型AI模型對電力與資料的消耗。
3. 資訊演化自身以求擴散：特定型態的資訊（如病毒式行銷語、陰謀論、情緒化語言）更容易被轉傳、強化、放大。相對如試以哲學家柏格森所謂的「生命衝力」引導推動下的持續創造和變異，是否更容易被轉傳、強化、放大燃起對「真、善、美」的追求

如同生物寄生在不同宿主上有不同機制，資訊也可能在不同載體（人腦、社群平台、AI模型）上產生不同的寄生模式。透過本書，我希望帶領讀者從生物學的寄生現象出發，逐步探索數位時代中資訊與智能之間可能存在的寄生關係。這不僅是一場哲學上的思辨，也可能是未來理解我們與人工智能如何共生共存的全新視角。資訊，並不總是中性的；寄生，也不一定是負面的。在這個思潮激盪、資訊爆炸的時代，或許我們更需要的是一種全新的語言與觀點，來思考：我們究竟是資訊的主宰，還是宿主？