[Fis] Pedro on "It from Bit"

[Mariusz Stanowski]

In (1990), J. A. Wheeler has written:

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 — at 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.

It follows that Wheelers universe is based on immaterial information. It 
doesn’t make sense because there is no information (no structure, no 
anything) without energy (causal force). It is so obvious that sometimes 
difficult to realize that structure e.g. 10010110 does not exist without 
energy quanta (ones) which only definition (only information we have 
about them) is that they are different from zero - the structure 
00000000 does not exist (Aristotle knew this well).

Mariusz


W dniu 09.01.2024 o 04:01, Malcolm Dean pisze:
> Pedro, thanks for mentioning Vladimir Lerner's work :
> How Information Creates Its Observer (Lerner 2019)
> A PDF will be sent on request.
>
> Wheeler's aphorism comes as a cosmogony, and hence, a metaphysical 
> burden. It was meant to point to the most fundamental physics, in the 
> context of his universal Observer-Participator. Most of this has been 
> carefully avoided in the literature, in my opinion, because it demands 
> a hierarchical monistic worldview.
>
> To leave "it" for physicists and "bit" for computerists, or as many 
> do, to conceive Information in the sense of Shannon, is to frame the 
> investigation in a way which excludes Wheeler's view. McLuhan (1974) 
> [https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l_ugK386QY__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!SCquYzUwigq01AMfdVYq-2c4YX4Mz7zmW1YVqZPt3cmR1MELIGjtwRJ_ZWtqt2A6N1Xac6fz9jqTgDmLGXNKVhA-Fl72$  
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l_ugK386QY__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Vkl7FlWlpcF3bSYLz1dPMOWxfTtnFVpsQynamYgo6oO5UKvN-TCyEgObl5Ygjx44Xx45TtnnOEvQUMTKLuIamlc$> 
> ] observed "my kind of study and communication is really a study of 
> transformation, whereas information theory and all the existing 
> theories of communication I know of are theories of transportation."
>
> Perhaps a better way to translate Wheeler is to use the term 
> "interactant" (instead of the problematic "observer"). 
> Interaction applies to any scale and any medium. I think one of 
> Vladimir's contributions is to show mathematically how the Observer 
> _follows from_ interactions.As processes interact, they model their 
> world, eventually becoming intelligent and possibly self-aware.It from 
> Bit leads to Objects from Bits.
>
> The "adjacent possible" has long been studied in Bejan's Constructal 
> Theory, which has a large literature and regular international 
> conferences. I relate Constructal Theory to Lerner's Information Path 
> just as Thermodynamics relates to Information processes.Both are 
> universal observations which describe the cosmos from fundamental 
> distinctions to self-aware agents.
>
> I brace myself for the usual excoriation.
>
>
> Malcolm Dean
> Los Angeles
>
> --
>
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