  Recent developments in quantum computation have made it clear that there is a
lot more to computation than the conventional Boolean algebra. Is quantum
computation the most general framework for processing information? Having
gathered the courage to go beyond the traditional definitions, we are now in a
position to answer: Certainly not. The meaning of a message being ``a
collection of building blocks'' can be explored in a variety of situations. A
generalised framework is proposed based on group theory, and it is illustrated
with well-known physical examples. A systematic information theoretical
approach is yet to be developed in many of these situations. Some directions
for future development are pointed out.
