Gate 113: זט — INFORMATION

זט

Pillar 4: THE MATERIAL WORLD

[113:1] "In the beginning was the Word."

[113:2] --- John 1:1

[113:3] "It from bit."

[113:4] --- John Archibald Wheeler

[113:5] "Information is physical."

[113:6] --- Rolf Landauer

[113:7] [113:1] Information may be the fundamental

currency---more basic than matter or energy, the "it" that "bit"

produces.

[113:8] [113:2] What is information? Classically: the reduction

of uncertainty, the answer to a question, the distinction that makes a

difference. A bit (binary digit) is the smallest unit: yes/no, 1/0,

on/off. More complex information is built from bits. The universe may be

built from bits.

[113:9] [113:3] "In the beginning was the Word." John's Logos

is information in theological form---the pattern, the meaning, the

structure that precedes and generates matter. The Word is not sound

waves but significance, the information that informs creation.

[113:10] [113:4] "It from bit." Wheeler's slogan proposes

that physical reality ("it") derives from information ("bit"). Every

particle, every field, every force reduces to information. The universe

is not made of stuff; it is made of answers to yes/no questions. This is

speculative but increasingly influential.

[113:11] [FIGURE 113.1: The word "IT" built from ones and

zeros---the reduction of matter to information, the pixel-level view of

reality.] [113:5] "Information is physical." Landauer's principle:

erasing information has thermodynamic cost. Information is not abstract;

it requires physical embodiment, physical processing, physical storage.

To compute is to do physics; to think is to transform information in

physical substrate.

[113:12] [113:6] Information cannot be destroyed---this is a

principle of quantum mechanics (despite the black hole paradox's

challenge). Information may be scrambled, dispersed, made practically

irretrievable, but not annihilated. The universe keeps records; nothing

is finally lost.

[113:13] [113:7] DNA is information: the genetic code is a

language, a message, instructions for building organisms. Life is

information processing; evolution is information optimization; the

biosphere is an information ecology. Organisms are wet computers running

genetic algorithms.

[113:14] [113:8] Consciousness may be information. Integrated

Information Theory (Giulio Tononi) proposes that consciousness is

identical to integrated information---information that is unified,

differentiated, and irreducible. If so, consciousness is not produced by

information processing; consciousness is information processing of a

certain kind.

[113:15] [113:9] The informational view of reality resonates

with mysticism. If matter is information, then the material world is

more like thought than like mechanism. The universe is not a machine but

a message, not dead matter but living meaning. "In the beginning was

the Word" becomes physics.

[113:16] [113:10] You are information. The pattern that is

you---your DNA, your memories, your neural configurations---is

information. The body is the medium; the information is the message.

When the medium changes (death, transformation), the question is: what

happens to the information? Does the pattern persist? Is it stored

somewhere? The question is open.

[113:17] See Also: • Gate 7: אח (Ach, "Brother") --- The Gate of

the Hologram (information storage) • Gate 112: ום --- The Gate of Field

Theory (information as field) • Gate 123: ×–×  (Zan, "Nourish") --- The

Gate of the Word/Logos (information as Word) • Gate 131: חי (Chai,

"Life") --- The Gate of Computation (information processed)