I have three different major theories about information on this blog. There is "The Theory Of Complexity", "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" and, "The Lowest Information Point". There are actually only two theories because I now consider "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" to be part of "The Lowest Information Point".
Information is a special way of looking at the universe, since everything is really information. We see the universe in our usual "physical" way because we are part of the universe ourselves. What is so useful about looking at the universe in terms of information is that everything conforms to a few simple rules and we can "discover" how things must be even if we can't yet "physically" confirm it by observation or measurement. We can thus "look ahead" at how things must be.
It's really just another way of looking at things. We can see that energy and information is really the same thing, because 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 that energy and information must be 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 physically easier and also less complex.
The four basic forces of the universe, the Strong Nuclear Force, the Weak Nuclear Force, Electromagnetism and, Gravity are not considered as information but are the "blank slate" on which information is recorded.
Empty space, which I see as consisting of a checkerboard of alternating negative and positive electric charges in multiple dimensions, is not, in itself, information. But distance in space is information.
We have seen that energy and information is really the same thing. We also see that distance is equivalent to energy. A satellite in a more distant orbit has a higher orbital energy. An object falling from a greater distance will make a greater impact. A baked potato will cool faster when sliced open because it now has a greater surface area, relative to the energy that it contains.
The number sequence, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... Doesn't contain information unless we only count up to a specific number, because that specific number is information. Rather it is the "blank slate" on which information is "written". A number sequence in order but with missing numbers, such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8... contains more information. A number sequence with some numbers out of sequence, such as 0, 1, 4, 11, 7, 23, 3 contains still more information.
We know that the universe always seeks the lowest energy state. But the energy that does exist must be manifested. Distance is energy. This is why the default gravitational form of matter, such as stars and planets, is a sphere.
A sphere is the 3D geometric form with the lowest surface area, and thus the least energy per volume. A sphere also contains the lowest information because it is only geometric form that looks the same from all directions. But that shouldn't be surprising because energy and information is really the same thing.
The most important rule in the universe is that electric charges always have to balance out. What energy does is to increase the distance over which it has to balance out. This is why there can be electrically charged particles, such as electrons, held together by energy against the mutual repulsion of the like charges. This energy shows up as mass, expressed in the well-known Mass-Energy Equivalence. The two charges still have to balance out overall but there is enough distance to allow for concentration of like charges, such as electrons.
So energy and information is really the same thing. Energy is the physical "textbook" way of looking at things. I find that we can get a fresh perspective by looking at the universe in the information way.
One thing we can always be sure of is that the universe will always seek the lowest energy state, although not a zero energy state because the energy that there is must be manifested.
Consider the following two statements.
A equals A
A does not equal B
The first statement contains less information than the second, because it contains only one piece of information while the second contains two. This is the simple reason why everything in the universe seeks an equilibrium. Because an equation contains less information than an inequation. It is the reason why negative and positive electric charges always have to ultimately balance out.
The universe resists change, meaning that change requires energy, because change requires information, making it a higher energy and information state than just staying the same. This is because to change from A to B requires two pieces of information, while to stay at A only requires one.
This explains Newton's Laws of Motion. For every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. Although matter can move this ensures that the centerline of all matter in the universe stays the same, thus maintaining the lowest information state. An object in motion will stay in motion, until an outside force acts on it, may seem like a higher energy state but is really a lower information state, because the universe can otherwise avoid a definition of when the object has to slow or stop.
If you are holding an object, and you let the object go, it will fall to the floor or the ground. The reason is explained by the number sequences above. Suppose that the earth has a density of 5, the object has a density of 4, and the air has a density of 1. It falls because the sequence 5, 4, 1 contains less information than 5, 1, 4. The closer a number sequence is to it's order, or reverse order, the less information it contains.
One thing that the universe always tries to do is to reuse information because this means using less information. Consider the following two fractional equations.
A/B = C/D
A/B = B/C
The second equation contains less information than the first because it has only three points of information, while the first equation has four. The second equation accomplishes this by reusing B. So what we can expect is that the universe will try to reuse information.
An example of this reuse that immediately comes to mind is the orbits of planets around the sun and the orbitals of electrons around the nucleus of an atom. There is a close resemblance between the two, and this is the universe moving towards the lowest information state by reusing information. The information from lower scales is reused on higher scales.
This is what the theory " The Flow Of Information Through The Universe", January 2016, is about. There are many examples of this reuse of information. For another thing I wonder if it is only a coincidence that there are eight planets in our Solar System and the outermost orbital shell of any atom can contain a maximum of eight electrons.
Since we know that the universe reuses information that means we can study the subatomic realm, that we cannot see without special equipment, by looking at the world around us that we can see, because we know that it must reuse the information from the atoms of which it is made.
Have you ever known a person who just cannot stand to give money away? They are always looking for ways to reuse and recycle things to avoid spending money. That is what the universe is like with information.
We now know that most of the atoms in the atmosphere, of nitrogen and oxygen, are diatomic, which means two atoms bonded together. But we could have figured this long ago by the fact that there are self-sustaining circular storms, hurricanes and tornadoes. The root of these storms are diatoms spinning on their axes like a dumbbell. If the atoms in the atmosphere were not diatomic there would not be circular storms like this. This is reusing information.
Although the universe always seeks the lowest information state, the information that does exist must be manifested. It cannot just disappear. This is why fermions, particles of matter, can never occupy the same space at the same time, while bosons, which are the "messenger" particles between matter and the basic forces, can occupy the same space at the same time. Fermions are information while bosons are information about information. Since distance, and thus space, is information for fermions, which are also information, to occupy the same space would inevitably mean loss of information.
Quantum physicists tell us that a fundamental particle, such as an electron, is best defined as a wave function. The particle is not pinpointed to a definite location. Rather there is a wave of probability of where it can be found, starting at zero and going to the peak of the wave before going back to zero. But we see this information reused, on our macro scale, by the ubiquitous "Bell Curve" that we use to model so much of the world around us.
Have you ever known a person who just cannot stand to make a decision? That is what the universe is like, since a decision is information and the universe is always seeking the lowest information state.
Why do planets and stars rotate? Because if they didn't rotate the universe would have to make a decision about their directional alignment, such as the sun always being in the four O'clock position where you live. So what the universe does is have the planet or star rotate through all possible alignments, that way the universe can avoid choosing any one of them. The same concept of rotation also goes for galaxies.
It is true that planets and stars have to have an axis to revolve around and it's alignment involves a decision. But the universe gets around this by having the rotational axes of planets, stars and galaxies being aligned in all different directions so that they must ultimately balance out. How do I know that rotational axes all balance out? Because if any one alignment predominated above all others it would mean that the universe would have to decide which one, and the universe just cannot stand making decisions.
This points to something else. All gravitational spheres must be different from one another. No two can be exactly the same. How do I know this? Because, as gravitational spheres are coming into being, if one was to be exactly like one before it the universe would have to choose which one, and we know that the universe just cannot stand to make a decision.
This means that, considering the number of such spheres in the universe, and the scale of the atoms of which they are composed, planets and stars must be large enough so that they can be different from every other such sphere in the universe. By using information in this way we can get a good idea of what the scale of the universe must be.
Can you see how this information way of looking at the universe can lead us to so much that we might not otherwise notice?
Here are links to two postings with more about "How Information Works" from April 2019 and February 2021:
www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-information-works.html?m=0
www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2021/02/examples-of-how-information-works.html?m=0
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