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Springer eBooks

It from bit or bit from it? : on physics and information

Anthony N. Aguirre, Brendan Foster, Zeeya Merali

Published Jan 1, 2015• 11 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-12946-4

Related papers

Physical Roots of It from Bit

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From Bit to Cell: A Physical Mechanism for "It from Bit" through Activation of Discrete Space

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In 1989, John Wheeler proposed the concept of "It from Bit," according to which physical reality arises from information. However, the mechanism of this transition remained undescribed. In this work, we propose such a mechanism: information becomes matter through the activation of a cell in discrete space upon interaction. Space is modeled as a hexagonal lattice, where each cell can exist in two states: information (0) and matter (1). The 0→1 transition occurs through physical interaction. The observer is a source of interaction, not consciousness. The model explains the observer effect, gravity, dark matter, and quantum uncertainty, providing "It from Bit" with the missing physical mechanism.

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Introduction Of John Wheeler's “Really Big Questions,” the one on which the most progress has been made is “It from bit?” – does information play a significant role at the foundations of physics? It is perhaps less ambitious than some of the other questions, such as “How come existence?”, because it does not necessarily require a metaphysical answer. And unlike, say, “Why the quantum?”, it does not require the discovery of new laws of nature: there was room for hope that it might be answered through a better understanding of the laws as we currently know them, particularly those of quantum physics. And this is what has happened: the better understanding is the quantum theory of information and computation. How might our conception of the quantum physical world have been different if “It from bit” had been a motivation from the outset? No one knows how to derive it (the nature of the physical world) from bit (the idea that information plays a significant role at the foundations of physics), and I shall argue that this will never be possible. But we can do the next best thing: we can start from the qubit. Qubits To a classical information theorist, a bit is an abstraction: a certain amount of information. To a programmer, a bit is a Boolean variable. To an engineer, a bit is a “flip-flop” – a piece of hardware that is stable in either of two physical states.

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In 1989, John Wheeler proposed the concept of "It from Bit," according to which physical reality arises from information. However, the mechanism of this transition remained undescribed. In this work, we propose such a mechanism: information becomes matter through the activation of a cell in discrete space upon interaction. Space is modeled as a hexagonal lattice, where each cell can exist in two states: information (0) and matter (1). The 0→1 transition occurs through physical interaction. The observer is a source of interaction, not consciousness. The model explains the observer effect, gravity, dark matter, and quantum uncertainty, providing "It from Bit" with the missing physical mechanism.
Introduction Of John Wheeler's “Really Big Questions,” the one on which the most progress has been made is “It from bit?” – does information play a significant role at the foundations of physics? It is perhaps less ambitious than some of the other questions, such as “How come existence?”, because it does not necessarily require a metaphysical answer. And unlike, say, “Why the quantum?”, it does not require the discovery of new laws of nature: there was room for hope that it might be answered through a better understanding of the laws as we currently know them, particularly those of quantum physics. And this is what has happened: the better understanding is the quantum theory of information and computation. How might our conception of the quantum physical world have been different if “It from bit” had been a motivation from the outset? No one knows how to derive it (the nature of the physical world) from bit (the idea that information plays a significant role at the foundations of physics), and I shall argue that this will never be possible. But we can do the next best thing: we can start from the qubit. Qubits To a classical information theorist, a bit is an abstraction: a certain amount of information. To a programmer, a bit is a Boolean variable. To an engineer, a bit is a “flip-flop” – a piece of hardware that is stable in either of two physical states.