Time, Matter, Energy & Information
The informational physics of the material world
Missing dimensions: Space, Observer
Overview
Time, matter, energy, and information together constitute the informational physics of the material world: matter and energy transforming over time according to laws that are themselves informational constraints. Landauer's principle lives here, as does the second law of thermodynamics, the unitarity of quantum mechanics, and the information-theoretic reformulation of physics. Without the observer, this is the universe running its own computation — processing information through material-energetic dynamics across time.
Central Tension
The tension is between the time-reversibility of fundamental physics and the time-irreversibility of information processing. The laws of physics are symmetric under time reversal, yet entropy increases and information degrades in only one temporal direction. The arrow of time appears to be an informational arrow — the direction in which material-energetic configurations lose structured information. Whether this arrow is fundamental or emergent is one of the deepest questions in physics.
Key Philosophical Questions
- Is the arrow of time fundamentally a material-energetic phenomenon or an informational one?
- Does the universe compute — is its temporal evolution of matter and energy an information-processing operation?
- Is Landauer's principle a law of physics or a law of information that physics must obey?
- Without an observer, does the universe still process information, or is information a concept that requires a knower?
Schools of Thought
The material-energetic universe processes information according to physical law over time; no observer is needed for this processing to occur.
Matter and energy are the hardware, information is the software, and time is the clock cycle; the universe is a self-executing computation.
Information is the fundamental reality; matter, energy, and time are the medium through which information processes itself.
Time, matter, energy, and information are all aspects of process; the universe is a creative advance into novelty, generating new informational patterns.
God sustains matter and energy through time according to his Word (information). The laws of physics are expressions of divine informational order, not autonomous constraints.
Synthesis
Time, matter, energy, and information together describe the universe as a self-computing system: material-energetic dynamics unfolding over time according to informational constraints. Without observer or space, this is physics at its most abstract — the universe as algorithm, executing itself across time.
Related Dimension Triplets