Examples Of How Information Works

Here is some more of what we saw in the April 2019 posting, "How Information Works".

First, here are the general rules of my information theory.

The complexity of a number, the amount of information in it, is equal to the value of the number when it is expressed as the denominator in a ratio or fraction. 9 is not more complex than 5 because 9 is really 9 / 1 and 5 is really 5 / 1, so that the denominator are equal.

Energy and information is really the same thing. We cannot apply energy to anything without adding information to it and we cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it. Another way we can see energy and information as really the same thing is in how we can make our lives physically easier through technology, but only at the expense of making them more complex. We can never, on a large scale, make our lives physically easier and also less complex.

The universe always seeks the lowest information state. This should not surprise us since energy and information is the same thing and we know that the universe always seeks the lowest energy state. An equality is a lower information state than an inequality because the equality requires only one piece of information, A = A, while an inequality requires two pieces of information, A does not equal B.

Surface area is equivalent to energy, which makes sense because surface area is distance and we know that distance is equivalent to energy. A higher orbit is a higher-energy orbit. The universe seeks the lowest energy state which is why stars and planets form spheres, a sphere is the shape of lowest energy and also lowest surface area per volume. When atoms are fused together in stars the new, larger atom has less overall surface area than the smaller atoms that were crunched together to form it. This means that there must be leftover energy. This energy is released as radiation and is why stars shine.

Now, following are some more examples of how the theory works.

1) NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM

It is a common saying that "nature abhors a vacuum". An everyday example of this is a vacuum cleaner. If the pressure of air in a chamber is lowered, relative to the surrounding air, there will be a rush of air into the chamber, until the pressure equalizes. The rush of air carries dirt with it.

Wherever there is a vacuum there will be a rush of air, or whatever other medium we are dealing with, to fill it. The only major exception is deep space, where there is nothing to fill the vacuum.

But why does nature abhors a vacuum? It can be explained in terms of information. 

A difference in pressure is an inequality. We know that nature prefers an equality to an inequality because the equality is a lower information state, involving only one piece of information while the inequality has two. This is why air will rush from a high pressure to a low pressure center, to turn an inequality into an equality. This is information but there is energy in the rushing air. That is because energy and in is really the same thing. We cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it and we cannot apply energy to anything without adding information to it.

Another way we can see that energy and in is really the same thing is how we can make our lives physically easier, by using technology, but only at the expense of making them more complex. We can never, on a large scale, make our lives both easier and also less complex.

This is why nature abhors a vacuum. It prefers an equality to an inequality, because the equality is a lower information state. The vacuum, relative to it's surroundings, creates an inequality, which nature strives to do away with.

2) TEMPERATURE AND WIND

An interesting question is why, when it is heat that produces wind, the coldest planets have the strongest winds and winds on earth tend to be stronger in the winter.

I believe that a major part of the answer comes down to a simple ratio, and it involves the concept of Absolute Zero.

Heat is the kinetic energy of moving atoms and molecules. The faster the motion, the higher the heat. But if we lower the temperature there should be a point where all atomic and molecular motion has ceased, and it cannot get any colder.

That point is known as Absolute Zero, when all atomic and molecular motion has stopped so that it cannot get any colder. Absolute Zero is defined as -459 degrees Fahrenheit or -273.16 degrees Celsius. There is also the Kelvin scale that has the same degrees as the Celsius scale but begins at Absolute Zero so that the freezing point of water is 273.16 degrees Kelvin and the boiling point is 373.16.

The zero point of the Celsius scale is the freezing point of water and the zero point of the Fahrenheit scale was arbitrarily chosen.

Winds are actually produced by uneven heating. If there are adjacent warmer and cooler areas, air will rise from the warmer area and sink over the colder area. This will produce a higher pressure over the colder area and air will move from there to the warmer area. This is what causes winds.

Suppose that there is a difference of ten degrees between a warmer and adjacent colder area. Air will rise over the warmer area and sink over the colder. This will set up a convection cell with wind moving from the colder to the warmer at the surface, and opposite at high altitude.

But if the overall temperature is colder, with there still being a difference between the two adjacent areas of ten degrees, there will be a greater proportional difference between the two areas than if it were warmer. This simple reason is why winds tend to be stronger and the coldest planets have the strongest winds.

In my information theory, the complexity of a number is the value of the number when it is expressed as the denominator of a ratio or fraction. The ten degrees temperature difference would be a smaller fraction, meaning a higher number as the denominator, with the higher temperature range than the lower. 

This would make the difference in the higher temperature range a higher information state, and thus a higher energy state because energy and information is really the same thing. There would still be the movement of air from higher to lower pressure, but this higher information-energy state would offer higher resistance to it.

That is why winds tend to be stronger in the winter and the coldest planets have the strongest winds. The winds on distant and frigid Neptune, for example, are like the shock waves from a nuclear bomb.

3) SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION

Simple harmonic motion is the alternating from one maximum to the opposite maximum. A swing or a pendulum is a familiar example of simple harmonic motion.

The most important example of simple harmonic motion is electromagnetic waves, which include light and radio waves. The wave starts at zero amplitude, proceeds to a maximum in one direction, drops back down to zero amplitude, proceeds to a maximum in the opposite direction, and finally returns to zero amplitude before beginning the next cycle.

In my cosmology theory space is made up of an alternating checkerboard pattern of negative and positive electric charges, in multiple dimensions. Energy always goes to oppose the basic rule of electric charges, that opposite charges attract while like charges repel. Energy in space must be manifested by disturbing the perfect checkerboard pattern to create the wave.

But after radiating energy in one direction, it must always return to the zero point and then radiate an equal amount in the opposite direction, before repeating the process. The reason for this is information.

This going back in the opposite to initial direction is related to Newton's Law of Equal and Opposite Reactions. An action in one direction has to be balanced by an equal reaction in the opposite direction.

The reason for this, in terms of information, is that an equality is a lower information state than an inequality. The wave going in one direction is a higher state of information than it also going in the opposite direction, because the one direction would involve making a choice over the other direction in that dimension which would be a higher state of information.

Electromagnetic waves are created by matter, and it is the nature and alignment of the matter that determines which dimension the wave will be aligned in. But it is a lower information state to have the wave alternate between the two opposite directions of that dimension, rather than choosing one. The equality of the wave in both directions represents a lower information state than if the wave radiated in one direction, but not the other.

It if for the same reason that planets and stars rotate around an axis. The alignment of the axis is determined when the star or planet is formed, so there is one dimension of information. But from there the star or planet avoids making a decision about how it would be aligned, which would be a higher information state, by rotating through all possible alignments.

The same principle applies to examples of simple harmonic motion like swings and pendulums. The Law of Equal and Opposite Reactions demands that the swing form the lower information state of the equality in also swinging an equal distance in the opposite direction, rather than the higher information state of the inequality that would exist if the swing stopped at the zero point. Because the universe always prefers a lower information state.

4) MERGING OF DROPS IN SINK

We can see that surface area is related to energy. Stars and planets are spherical because a sphere is the three-dimensional geometric form with the lowest surface-to-volume ratio, meaning that a sphere is the lowest energy form. It is well-known that the universe always seeks the lowest energy state.

This is actually why stars shine. When enough mass collects together by gravity to overcome the electron repulsion that keeps atoms separate and crunch smaller atoms together into larger ones, the new larger atom has less overall surface area than the smaller atoms that were crunched together to produce it. Since surface area represents energy, this means that there must be leftover energy.

There is indeed leftover energy. It is released as radiation and this is why stars, including the sun, shine. At the current stage in the sun's fusion process it is crunching four hydrogen atoms into one helium atom. Planets do not shine because they do not have enough mass to overcome electron repulsion by gravity.

Due to the geometric nature of a sphere, a larger sphere has less surface area per volume than a smaller sphere. Suppose we have two spherical lumps of clay, if we force the two together into one sphere the new larger sphere would have less overall surface area than the two original ones. This illustrates the reason why stars shine.

Within atoms the atoms actually get smaller in radius as we move to the right on a row of the Periodic Table, to successively heavier atoms. This decrease in radius, even though the atoms are getting heavier, continues until we get to the next row, which adds an electron shell. 

The relationship between energy and surface area, described above, applies when gravity is the binding force behind the sphere. But within atoms it is the opposite charge attraction between the positively-charged protons in the nucleus and the negatively-charged electrons in orbitals. 

Each successively heavier atom in a row of the Periodic Table has one more electron and proton than the one preceding it. This results in a stronger force pulling the atom together, which results in a smaller surface area. So even though the atom is heavier, and thus contains more energy as per the well-known Mass-Energy Equivalence, the surface area is less.

The rule of surface area being equivalent to energy thus applies to gravitational spheres and to objects consisting of atoms generally. Inside the atom the rules are a little bit different, at least regarding atoms in the same row of the Periodic Table. My cosmology theory explains it, everything consisting of electric charges and the overall displacement of the charges comprising the space within the atom by the charged particles comprising the atom being proportional to the mass of the atom, even though the surface area may be smaller.

Back to drops of water merging in a sink. We can see that drops of water in a sink often merge into a larger drop. Yet, if surface area is equivalent to energy at least outside atoms in the same row of the Periodic Table, there is no apparent release of energy when smaller water droplets in a sink merge into a larger drop, which must have less overall surface area than the drops which formed area.

This can easily be explained in terms of information. Water molecules are electrical in nature. The molecule consists of one atom of oxygen and two of hydrogen. One side of the molecule is more negatively-charged and the other side more positively-charged. This causes water molecules to line up negative-to-positive, and results in liquid water.

Electric charge has an effect over a distance. The number of inter-relationships between electric charges in water is information. Energy and information is really the same thing. When drops of water merge together there is suddenly more inter-relationships between electric charges than there was before. This is why there is no release of energy when drops merge together, such as the water getting warmer, even though the overall surface area is now less. The loss of surface area is exactly balanced by the increase in the number of inter-relationships between electric charges, and there is no energy release.

5) MAGNETISM AND INEQUALITY

The most stable nucleus is that of iron. It has the highest binding energy per nucleon of all elements. What is known as the Binding Energy Curve peaks at iron.

This stability represents a lower information state than an instability, because stability is an equation while instability is an inequation. But iron, like all elements heavier than hydrogen, is formed by crunching lighter elements together, either by fusion in stars or in the Big Bang at the beginning of the universe.

This means that two, or more, less-stable atoms were put together to make the more-stable iron. Since instability represents a higher information state, this can only mean that information must have been lost somewhere, and we know that information cannot just be lost.

An atom is an informational unit. We can easily see where the apparently missing information went. It turns out that the elements near the very top of the Binding Energy Curve, particularly iron, are the elements that can manifest magnetism.

Electrons in atomic orbitals usually operate in pairs, one with an up and one with a down spin, because, of course, this represents a lower information state. But there are also unpaired electrons. If the orbitals of unpaired electrons can be lined up, the atom will exert an electromotive force.

This force is known as magnetism. The atom will have a north pole and a south pole. Just like the rules of electric charges, opposite poles attract and like poles repel. 

Magnetism, the north and south pole, is a higher information state than non-magnetism. This information has to come from somewhere. Even though the Binding Energy Curve relates to the nucleus of the atom, and magnetism relates to the electrons in orbitals, with the two apparently having nothing to do with each other, we have to remember that the whole atom is an informational unit.

The missing information from the less-stable atoms that fused to form this atom is actually not missing at all. It went into the electron orbitals so that the energy can reappear as the higher information state of magnetism.

6) ELECTRICITY

Electricity is one of the most familiar examples of how information works, and how energy and information is really the same thing.

The universe is composed of negative and positive electric charges. The most important physical rule in the universe is that the two charges always have to balance out. The charges do not have to balance out in every location, which is why charged particles like electrons can exist, but they do have to balance out overall. Energy increases the distance over which the charges have to balance out, which is why distance is equivalent to energy so that a higher orbit is also a higher-energy orbit.

The reason that negative and positive charges always have to balance out is due to information. The universe always seeks the lowest information state, just as it seeks the lowest energy state, because energy and information is really the same thing. An equality is a lower information state than an inequality, because the equality needs only one piece of information whereas the inequality needs two. Having the two charges balance out is an equality, and that is why the universe always seeks this balance.

In our matter universe electric charges themselves do not ordinarily change position. When there is an electrical change it is usually due to the movement of electrons, which are concentrations of negative charge that are held together by energy.

Metals consist of large groups of atoms, called crystals, which share their outermost electrons. By applying electromotive pressure, which is information and thus energy, electrons can be made to move in metal. This is known as an electric current. The side that loses electrons is called the negative side, and the side that gains electrons is the positive side.

But the electric current is, once again, seeking the lowest information state. The electromotive pressure is information, and also energy, which upsets the equation. Seeking to reestablish the equation, which is the lowest information state, causes electrons to move. This information is also energy because we can use the flow as electrical energy.

( Note- Remember what we have seen here before about what I call the "Electric Charge Conundrum". We define electrons as having a negative electric charge and the protons in the nucleus a positive charge. But that creates a situation that doesn't make sense because it is electrons that move between atoms in chemical reactions and in the formation of molecules. We thus define an atom as having a net positive charge after it has lost an electron. Since negative also means losing, while positive commonly means gaining, that doesn't seem to make sense. Wouldn't it make more sense for the electron to have a positive charge, as it does in antimatter, so that an atom losing an atom resulted in it having a net negative charge and gaining an atom would result in a net negative charge )?

7) DISTANCE IN CITIES AND TRAVEL

We have seen how distance in space is equivalent to energy. The electric charges that comprise the universe always have to balance out but energy increases the distance over which they have to balance out. That is why energy and distance are related.

An obvious way that energy and distance are equivalent is orbits. A higher altitude orbit is also a higher energy orbit. But we know that energy and information is really the same thing, and we can see the relationship between energy and distance in human society.

As humans learn more and society progresses, more movement is necessary to daily life. This represents the equivalence of distance and information, which we know is the same thing as energy. 

It makes sense that the more humans learn, the more different specialized job descriptions there will be. The more specialized job descriptions there are, the further the average worker will have to travel to work or study. This shows, in another way, how information, or energy, is equivalent to distance.

8) BIOLOGICAL CELLS

Living things are of a higher level of complexity than their inanimate surroundings. This higher complexity is manifested as inter-relationships that involve information in ways that are not found in inanimate matter.

Consider a human foot, for example. A human foot has no meaning outside it's role as part of the body. We ordinarily would not find human feet lying around by themselves, as we would rocks. 

This illustrates how, although the body is made of the same kind of atoms as it's inanimate surroundings, it is part of the higher complexity of biology due to interconnections that would have no meaning in the surrounding universe of inanimate matter. A rock, in contrast, would have just as much meaning whether it was part of a planet or floating around in space.

But while living things, particularly humans, are complex, they are not infinitely complex. If every molecule in your body had to have a specific relationship with every other molecule, as the foot does to the rest of the body, your body would approach infinite complexity.

So to adjust the complexity of the body to match the level of information that went into it's design, which is less-than-infinite, the parts and organs of the body are composed of structures called cells. These cells have an interrelationship to the other cells in the part or organ of the body, which has a working interrelationship with the other parts and organs of the body. 

The cells are thus what lowers the overall complexity of the body, adjusting it to match the information of design that went into it.

9) THE SPOILING OF FOOD

Living creatures are more complex than their surrounding environment. This means that they contain more information. According to my information theory, energy and information is really the same thing.

This means that, for the living creature to survive in it's surrounding environment, it must be sustained. That sustenance comes from food. Since food must contain the energy / information to sustain life against it's inanimate environment, it cannot come from that environment. It must come from other living things and must itself be more complex than the surrounding environment.

We know that if we put a higher-energy state next to a lower energy state, such as hotter and colder, energy will tend to flow from the former to the latter. Since energy and information is really the same thing, that should mean that information should also have a tendency to flow from a higher to a lower state.

That, plainly and simply, is why food tends toward decay and also why the bodies of living things decay after death, when they are no longer being sustained.

The lower information level of the surrounding environment tends to pull the now-unsustained former living things down to it's level. Because remember that the universe prefers the lower information state of an equality to the higher information state of the inequality that comes with the higher and lower information states.

This also explains why, as a general rule, larger living things tend to live longer than smaller ones. While this is not a strict rule it is a broad general rule.

The reason, once again, is information. Larger living things tend to be more complex, containing more overall information, than smaller ones but smaller forms of life may be much more intricate than the larger ones. What I mean by more intricate is having a higher complexity per mass.

This higher intricacy, even without higher overall information, means a ratio with a higher denominator of information relative to the information level of the surrounding inanimate environment. This means more of an inequality between the two with the result that the surrounding environment "tries" that much harder to pull the smaller living thing down to it's own level of information. With the overall lower amount of information in the smaller living thing, the result is a shorter lifespan than the larger living things.

10) THE FORMATION OF ATOMS

Atoms are composed of charged particles, negatively-charged electrons in orbitals around the nucleus that consists of positively-charged protons and neutrally-charged neutrons. But electric charges are information, as to whether it is positive or negative, and we know that the universe always seeks the lowest information state.

So what happens is that these charged particles tend to form structures that all have the same neutral charge, because this is the lowest information state. These structures are known as atoms.

The formation of atoms does not entirely produce the lowest possible information state. That is why electrons can move between atoms, or atoms may share electrons in their outermost orbitals, because it produces a still-lower information state. This is how molecules form.

If a molecule, a combination of atoms, does not represent the lowest information state then it's formation will require an input of energy. This is why some of the chemical reactions that form molecules require an input of energy ( endothermic ), while other reactions give off energy by breaking molecules apart ( exothermic ).

Notice that the only interactions that give off electromagnetic waves are those involving the charged particles that compose atoms, or where atoms are broken apart. The collision of two vehicles, for example, do not give off electromagnetic waves because the atoms remain intact. 

This is due to the higher information state of charges outside the structure of atoms, which represents an inequality. The excess information has to go somewhere, and it takes the form of electromagnetic radiation.

Here is a link to the original posting:

http://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-information-works.html?m=0