Science is a method ready-made for measuring the ‘hardware’ of the universe. But what about the ‘software’?This is a topic that interests me more every day- what is ‘information’? The short video above asks that exact question:
Information is on our phones and in our DNA sequence, but what is it exactly? Is it something subjective or a real quantity?
One can see that if we regard our universe/reality as being a computer simulation – like a super-enhanced game of Doom or Skyrim – then the world is constructed completely by information in a computer program.
The well-known American theoretical physicist John Archibald Wheeler proposed that information is fundamental to creating the reality of the Universe, coining the short phrase ‘It from Bit’ to describe that function.
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 know a couple of my favourite authors, Jacques Vallee and Paul Davies, have also covered this fascinating topic. Any recommendations for further reading?
