  Computational intelligence is broadly defined as biologically-inspired
computing. Usually, inspiration is drawn from neural systems. This article
shows how to analyze neural systems using information theory to obtain
constraints that help identify the algorithms run by such systems and the
information they represent. Algorithms and representations identified
information-theoretically may then guide the design of biologically inspired
computing systems (BICS). The material covered includes the necessary
introduction to information theory and the estimation of information theoretic
quantities from neural data. We then show how to analyze the information
encoded in a system about its environment, and also discuss recent
methodological developments on the question of how much information each agent
carries about the environment either uniquely, or redundantly or
synergistically together with others. Last, we introduce the framework of local
information dynamics, where information processing is decomposed into component
processes of information storage, transfer, and modification -- locally in
space and time. We close by discussing example applications of these measures
to neural data and other complex systems.
