I’m Back! Research Update

Greetings! I have been on an intentional blogging hiatus and have not posted anything since last March. I did so because of the need I felt to focus on researching and learning about my latest intellectual passion, sometimes referred to as the physics of information. This is the somewhat flowery name for the theory that information might be a fundamental part of physical reality itself, on equal footing with matter and energy, and not just a human tool.

While I have not posted anything in months, that doesn’t mean I stopped writing. I didn’t. I’ve actually written quite a bit; it’s just that none of it is ready for prime time.

I find writing to be a good method for thinking through difficult subject matter. It’s kind of like thinking out loud. And I won’t lie: the material I am diving into is, to me, quite complicated. After all, I am not a trained physicist, nor am I any good at math, both requirements for doing something experimental or proof-wise with the theories I am exploring. I am therefore totally dependent on others for this type of effort.

Fortunately for me, there is another side to the study of information that is much more philosophical, and that is both my hook and my “in,” if you will, because philosophy is familiar territory to me and is something I enjoy both reading and, these days, doing.

Thus, I remain locked into dealing with the higher-level concepts about information that are at play. And you know, that’s okay. There is more than enough conceptual material to study and noodle about. One thing for sure is that just because it’s conceptual doesn’t mean it’s easy. It’s not.

I could be wrong, but I am of the belief that if I can write an explanation of a complicated theory in such a way that someone who is not familiar with the language or subject matter can understand it, then perhaps I will have proven to myself that I finally understand it.

My studies over the past two years about the physics of information have taken me on an incredible journey. And let me tell you, it’s been a wild ride through some of the more spectacular areas of pop science.

For example, some of the trails I’ve been forced to tread include a deep dive into the second law of thermodynamics to get my head around a thing called entropy. Here I got up close and personal with a pioneering engineer called Claude Shannon and his “information theory.” Another path led me to Stephen Hawking, black holes, and what is called the black hole information paradox. I then discovered biologist Tom Stonier and was driven to rethink what I’d learned about entropy and strongly consider the idea that information might be as fundamental as matter and energy, which led me to learn about Landauer’s principle. This was the clincher for me, because this principle has been proven experimentally, over and over. It shows that erasing a single bit of information results in the actual dissipation of energy in the form of heat into the environment, which essentially marries information processing and thermodynamics. It demonstrates that information is not just a thought in our heads; it’s physical. This blew my mind! My latest discovery involves the fascinating theory of counterfactuals. I hope to write about this in the near future.

The list of books, articles, and videos that I have pored over this past year reads like a who’s who of people at the forefront of information theory.

All of this research caused me to think that there is more to this information story and more than one way of looking at the topic, which led me to develop my own theory about information, something I call “infogenesis.” My theory of infogenesis isn’t ready for prime time yet either, but I am making progress on it, which I find exciting.

It feels good to be blogging again!