In the early 20th century, Einstein perplexed most learned people when he claimed that the "force" of gravity that we all experience with our senses is actually just "curved space". Some scoffed, and asked rhetorically, "how can you curve nothing?". How can something-we-know-is-real be caused by something we assume is non-real? At the time Einstein only had a mathematical answer that made no sense to our senses. Non-mathematicians just had to take his word for it. Eventually, mathematicians and physicists became accustomed to thinking of space-time, not simply as a void, but as a 4D grid of "ideal points" (a scalar field composed of virtual* particles) that were defined, not by their substance, but by the geometric relationships between them. In other words space was composed, not of matter or energy, but of mathematical data (information). Computers have no difficulty manipulating abstract data in such a way as to curve the "space" defined by that information. But most humans are not accustomed to dealing with raw disembodied data in the environment. We normally interact physically with matter and energy, then subconsciously convert them into analogous mental objects, that are in turn, manipulated by the mind as-if they were real objects. What then are these analogies, if not metaphysical metaphors of physical reality---a virtual reality? If Einstein was right, the vast majority of the universe, space-time, is composed of “information” that has not yet become embodied in matter. Hence, the usual assumption that Information is inherently material, cannot be supported in the post-quantum era. ● *Wikipedia: "Virtual" is therefore taken to mean a potential state that could become actual. "Virtual" is not opposed to "real" but opposed to "actual," whereas "real" is opposed to "possible."
SOURCE OF INFORMATION
What information is not though, is the subject of thought, the thinker, the mind, the soul. Or is it? Who am I? Is this physical body---composed of ephemeral atoms---really me? Or am I my mind; traditionally called my soul or my self? Based on our common experience, if matter and energy are essentially ideas or thoughts, then their existence in time and space would also require a mind of some kind to contain and process them. But since information-in-general is a staple of objective reality, it can't exist solely in my mind---that would be the fallacy of solipsism. So the only alternative I see is for matter, energy, space, time, bodies, minds, and everything else to exist as objects-of-thought in a universal Information Processor. That is, a metaphysical Mind which includes the physical universe, but also transcends it. The sum of all thoughts and things in reality would then add-up to an all-encompassing Thinker. All of those little pieces of information could then be conceived as one great Enformer.
The idea of a universal mind sounds crazy of course. Except to those who believe in God. Or to those who think in terms of Holism, Systems Theory, Cybernetics, and so forth [12]. If the idea of a Group Mind or Hive Mind can be taken seriously by scientists, then the idea of a Universal Mind should not be too far-fetched [13]. So this hypothesis will only be concerned with constructing a preliminary and speculative, but rational and pragmatic assessment of the likelihood that the essence of our Reality is not matter, but mind. It will not attempt to define or detail the ultimate source of Information though. Those traditional transcendental issues will be left to theologians and philosophers to resolve in their endless debates and dialogues. As far as this thesis is concerned, the metaphysical information, from which the physical universe is built, is a given. Information, as both noun and verb, is an essential , integral, mundane component of Nature. If information is natural, then how is it manifested in Nature? That is the topic of the section on The Nature of Information. But first, let’s get a bit more specific about what we mean by “information” ●
EN-FORM-ACTION
The word “information” began as a verb referring to the act of adding or imparting a meaningful pattern or shape to something. Over time it began to be used as a noun, which caused an intangible action to be confused with the tangible result. Ironically, like energy & matter, protean information can be both the actor and the object of action.
UNIVERSAL MIND?
See the side notes on the Links page for more thoughts on the the Cosmic Observer postulated to explain the Quantum Enigma that observation by a scientist seems to force Nature to suddenly convert a statistical probability into concrete reality. In quantum experiments reality seems to be somehow dependent on mentality.
LINKS
MATHEMATIC FORM
Art bids us touch and taste and hear and see the world, and shrinks from what Blake calls mathematic form, from every abstract thing, from all that is of the brain only . . .
