What is information?

I'm sure we have all heard this: "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?" This question is one of tremendous importance. The reason why this question is so important is because Einstein's special-relativity (and Galileo's classical relativity) rests upon the idea of information being transverse across reference frames. When these theories were being developed the authors must have postulated what "information" means and consists of. If I tell you that "a tree fell in the woods," does that constitute as information? If I translate “a tree fell in the woods” into Latin, would it still be information relevant to the discussion?

So far it seems as though some information that is being provided, namely “a tree fell in the woods” may be of greater importance compared to “a tree fell in the woods” translated into Latin; yet better still would be a picture of the tree or, ideally, the actual light waves or sound waves produced by the tree falling. Consider “a tree fell in the woods” equal to (TW) and “a tree fell in the woods” in Latin equal to (TWL), to simplify things. (TW) is useful to you because it transfers to your frame; (TWL) is not useful (to most of you) because it doesn’t transfer to you. Therefore, this method of depicting information is not useful for any theory of relativity in which information is transverse across reference frames. This is only the case for two reasons: 1) there is no universal language (besides math) and 2) people lie/don’t gather data effectively.

Not surprisingly, the sound and light waves would be the ideal universal language to transverse information across any two reference frames. So, in conclusion I would like to jump to the point.

Random Person: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?”
Another Person: “I cannot say, because the information provided lacks the ability to be crossed referenced.”

Think of it this way, a tree has never fallen without a human being watching (that we know of). We may consider it common sense to assume: “the tree is on the ground, it must have fallen!” and it also seems common sense to assume sound being present after/during a tree falling but if we are to assume these statements true on “common sense” must we also assume, that without life in the universe, would it too still exist?

(special thanks to Aaron A. for a fruitful discussion of the above topics.)