Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

   Post 114.  February 16, 2021

  Introduction to Enformationism

   From Form to Energy to Matter to Mind to Self

   The Enformationism website presents my personal philosophical worldview, as a hypothesis for how & why the universe exists and works as it does. But it could also serve as the seed of a possible update for the fruitful, but outdated, paradigm of Materialism. However, since various forms of matter-first physicalism are still the default model for the empirical sciences, this philosophical thesis is merely a personal worldview. Yet, it’s based on the emerging evidence that invisible Information, instead of tangible Matter, is the funda-mental substance of everything in the universe, including Energy, Matter, and Mind. In the thesis, that unconventional assertion is supported by references to expert opinions from a variety of credentialed scientists and philosophers. Perhaps the most important endorsement will be its ability to make sense of many of the apparent paradoxes1 in physics & metaphysics.

Like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and the various theories of Quantum Mechanics, Enformationism is a simple, but counter-intuitive, concept that requires curiosity and motivation to reach a general understanding. Recent scientific breakthroughs  have probed further beyond the familiar, human-scale world we formerly understood intuitively. Even though scientists still don’t fully grasp all of the ramifications and interrelationships within those theoretical realms, they know enough to make practical use of them. For example, a significant portion of the world’s economy is now based on electronics and computer industries, that would not exist apart from the many pragmatic applications of those abstruse theories. Cell Phones, MP3 Players, Flash Drives, and many other 21st century technolo-gies would not be possible without a practical understanding of Quantum “queerness”.

One thing that all of these examples of leading-edge science have in common is a prominent role for Information. Not the mundane stuff you get on Google, but the essential stuff, as defined by Claude Shannon. In his analysis of communication, he saw that ideas can be converted into abstract digital numbers. What he called Information2 was found to be equi-valent to potent Energy as opposed to depleted Entropy. Yet in a larger context, its power-to-enform also has the ability to give meaningful & useful & valuable Form or shape to some raw, unformed substance. Hence, Information is packed with Potential, as opposed to the emptiness of Entropy. Inspired by that compelling metaphor, along with some insights from Quantum Theory, I have concluded that Causal Energy actually consists of Elemental Information3. On the most basic levels, such as laws of physics, that invisible “en-form-action” is analogous to the numerical relationships we call Mathematics4.

According to my developing thesis of Enformationism, as we zoom our view from micro (smallest) to macro (human scale) to cosmic (largest) scales, the information we find becomes more and more condensed, compressed, and solid, and then it begins to fade away, back into the same ethereal5 stuff it began from. This is an essential part of the information cycle of evolution. In other words, evolution begins & ends as En-form-action6. In the process, this proto-energy is neither created nor destroyed, but only changes form — like Proteus (the shape-shifting sea-god of the ancient Greeks). Please bear with me, as I introduce pertinent concepts from Ancient Greek Philosophy, Eastern Mysticism, Classical Western Physics, Evolution Theory, and cutting-edge Quantum Theory.
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3. Energy is Information :
   Energy is the relationship between information regimes. That is, energy is manifested, at any level, between structures, processes and systems of information in all of its forms, and all entities in this universe are composed of information.
https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/22084/how-is-information-related-to-energy-in-physics

4. Inform-mathematics :
    The real birth of modern information theory can be traced to the publication in 1948 of Claude Shannon’s “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”
https://www.britannica.com/science/information-theory

5. Big Bang Plasma :
     It is sometimes referred to as the fourth state of matter, distinct from the solid, liquid, and gaseous states.
https://www.britannica.com/science/plasma-state-of-matter

6. Big Bang Singularity :
    The initial singularity is a singularity predicted by some models of the Big Bang theory to have existed before the Big Bang and thought to have contained all the energy and spacetime of the Universe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_singularity
Note : Since that zero-dimen-sional point would be of infinite density, it could not contain actual matter, but only the immaterial design information to produce solid matter.

1. Paradox :
   “a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.”
   Example : In Quantum Physics, sub-atomic particles may appear as both independent objects and as waves in a hypo-thetical continuous intangible fluid medium.

2, Information :
   Knowledge and the ability to know. Technically, it's the ratio of order to disorder, of positive to negative, of knowledge to ignorance. It's measured in degrees of uncertainty. Those ratios are also called "differences". So Gregory Bateson* defined Information as "the difference that makes a difference". The latter distinction refers to "value" or "meaning". Babbage called his prototype computer a "difference engine". Difference is the cause  or agent of Change. In Physics it’s called "Thermodynamics" or "Energy". In Sociology it’s called "Conflict".

Enformationism

Website

GNOMON
Retired Architect & Amateur Philosopher

“A philosophical worldview  grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe.”

Plato’s Theory
of
En-Form-ationism