neatExisting property --> human agent (user, interpreter, analyzer, observer) --> information produced
-- Updated May 31st, 2017, 8:45 am to add the following --
James
Right, mass is a property of the rock. If the rock erodes due to weather, that is a process of interaction between the stuff the rock is made of and wind and rain.Consider a different property of the rock: its mass. This property only becomes relevant if something interacts with the rock, but we still say it is a property of the rock and not a property of the interaction.
Stuff and Processes. These exist independent of any observer/describer.
You, a conscious creature, can observe and describe that stuff and those processes. You can describe the properties of the rock as grey, a metre tall, weighing 20 stone, etc. You can describe the processes of of erosion in detail. You can call those descriptions 'information' about the properties of the rock and the processes of erosion.
The properties of the rock and its processes exist independently, carry on regardless of whether someone (a conscious creature) describes them in terms of 'information', and don't change just because they are described in terms of 'information'.
Rocks and rain don't understand the concept of 'information', because they are not conscious. They simply interact according to the laws of physics. We can describe their processes in an abstracted way as 'exchanging information', which can be a useful way in some contexts for us to think about what's going on. But it's only description. But it's the stuff and processes themselves following the laws of nature where cause and effect is located, not in the description.