Information — Dimension

Overview

Information is the structure, pattern, and content that distinguishes one state of affairs from another. It is what makes a signal meaningful, a measurement definite, and a record possible. In physics, information is conserved (the unitarity of quantum mechanics); in biology, it is the currency of heredity (DNA) and cognition (neural encoding). Whether information is a fundamental feature of reality or merely a description we impose upon it is one of the deepest questions in contemporary philosophy and physics.

Philosophical Significance

The philosophical status of information has been debated since Shannon formalized it in 1948. Shannon information is syntactic: it measures surprise, not meaning. Semantic information — what a message is about — remains philosophically contested. Some physicists (Wheeler, Zeilinger) have argued that information is the most fundamental feature of reality: "it from bit." Others treat information as merely a way of describing physical states, not a substance in its own right. The black hole information paradox — whether information falling into a black hole is truly lost — remains one of the central problems in theoretical physics.

Scientific Perspective

In quantum mechanics, information is conserved: the evolution of a quantum system is unitary, meaning no information is lost. The measurement problem can be reframed as an information problem: when we measure a quantum system, where does the information about the unmeasured outcomes go? In thermodynamics, entropy is a measure of missing information. Landauer's principle connects information to physics directly: erasing one bit of information dissipates at least kT ln 2 of energy. In biology, the genetic code is an information-processing system of extraordinary fidelity.

Key Philosophical Debates

Is information physical?

Landauer argued that information is always physically embodied and that erasing information has a thermodynamic cost. This suggests information is not abstract but a real feature of physical systems. Others counter that information is a description of physical states, not itself a physical substance.

Is information fundamental?

Wheeler's "it from bit" program proposes that the physical world arises from informational processes. Digital physics and constructor theory take similar positions. Alternatively, information may be an emergent concept that becomes meaningful only at macroscopic scales where observers and measurements exist.

Is information conserved?

Quantum unitarity implies that information is never destroyed, only scrambled. The black hole information paradox challenges this: Hawking radiation appears thermal, suggesting information is lost. Most physicists now believe information is preserved, but the mechanism remains debated.

Across Philosophical & Theological Traditions

Many traditions have implicit theories of information. The Logos in Greek and Christian philosophy is the rational structure of reality — a kind of cosmic information. The Buddhist doctrine of dependent origination treats the informational structure of causal relations as more fundamental than any substance. The Hindu concept of Akashic records — a universal memory of all events — treats information as conserved and accessible. In the digital age, Dataism (Harari) treats information flow as the supreme value, while critics warn that reducing reality to data loses the qualitative dimensions of experience.

Attribute Definitions

Ontological Status

Substantival: Information is a fundamental, irreducible feature of reality — not dependent on matter, energy, or observers for its existence.

Relational: Information is constituted by the relations between physical states; it exists only insofar as there are differences between states.

Emergent: Information arises from more basic physical or mental processes; it is not a fundamental feature of reality.

Conservation

Conserved: Information is never truly lost or destroyed; it may be scrambled or made inaccessible, but the total information content of a closed system is preserved.

Non-conserved: Information can be genuinely lost or destroyed; erasure and forgetting involve real loss of information from the universe.