I'm not sure about this view but there are some who argue that information is more primitive than matter and may ultimately underpin the laws of physics so that everything arises out of information. This is Wheeler’s suggestion that “information” can’t be defined in terms of “matter” or “energy” and that it may therefore be as or more fundamental than either “matter” or “energy”? This is an interesting quote/paper:
Quote:
I think that the next level of unification (along the lines of the unification of other previously unrelated concepts in science, such as electricity and magnetism, light and electromagnetism, and energy and mass, to mention a few) will involve information and physics (and ultimately, as a consequence, computation and physics).
Introducing the Computable Universehttp://lanl.arxiv.org/pdf/1206.0376.pdfWheeler's older quote repeats this theme:
Quote:
It is not unreasonable to imagine that information sits at the core of physics, just as it sits at the core of a computer. It from bit. Otherwise put, every it—every particle, every field of force, even the space-time continuum itself—derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely—even if in some contexts indirectly—from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits... ‘It from bit’ symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom–a very deep bottom, in most instances–an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes/no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe.
I'm not sure I buy or understand this view.
15 Jun 2012, 1:06 pm
