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According to the dominant paradigm in both biology and the language sciences, “information” is an entity which can be “contained” in genes or words; “transferred” to a receptor, this “information” is supposedly the key to phenomena such as the ontogenesis of living organisms or the meaning of language. Argues that this paradigm suffers from unsurmountable weaknesses and, moreover, that possible alternatives exist: maybe the time has come to abandon the information cult.

The complexity of any given cognitive phenomenon, such as “scientific discovery”, “technical expertise”, or “natural language understanding”, requires a multidisciplinary approach. Presents, within the framework of such an approach, some visible evidences of how these very different phenomena are closely rooted in the same highly inventive cognitive process, abduction. These evidences will be provided out of examples from both everyday language interpretation and law making expertise.