crash writes:
I don't think so. If science progressed in that way, it would mean that science had discovered that information was physical.
This is from the introduction to
Decoding the Universe by Charles Seife:
Information theory is so powerful because information is physical. Information is not just an abstract concept, and it is not just facts or figures, dates or names. It is a concrete property of matter and energy that is quantifiable and measurable. It is every bit as real as the weight of a chunk of lead or the energy stored in an atomic warhead, and just like mass and energy, information is subject to a set of physical laws that dictate how it can behave - how information can be manipulated, transferred, duplicated, erased, or destroyed. And everything in the universe must obey the laws of information, because everything in the universe is shaped by the information it contains.
What he's saying isn't really just a strongly worded metaphor. At heart, the laws of our universe are actually laws of information.
By the way, for anyone who recalls the discussion in the
Codes, Evolution, and Intelligent Design thread where there were some claiming that starlight and tree rings do not contain encoded information, there's this from further on in the introduction:
Every creature on Earth is a creature of information; information sits at the center of our cells, and information rattles around in our brains. But it's not just living beings that manipulate and process information. Every particle in the universe, every electron, every atom, every particle not yet discovered, is packed with information - information that is often inaccessible to us, but information nonetheless, information that can be transferred, processed, and dissipated. Each star in the universe, each one of the countless galaxies in the heavens, is packed full of information, information that can escape and travel. That information is always flowing, moving from place to place, spreading throughout the cosmos.
--Percy
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