Let me recap the pertinent definitions of the technical term “information” (I): A>"the immaterial quality of physical patterns and processes that stimulates meaning in a mind" B> “some physicists began to treat electrons simply as mathematical definitions” C> “metaphysical Information is THE organizing principle of the universe”. Hence, (I) is not matter, but material electrons are (I), which is simply Order or Organization. Another way to put it is, Information is the foundational structure of the real world. Information is “that which gives form” to matter. Without information, nothing would exist.
That may take a while to sink in, because we are switching scales from holistic cosmic creation to sub-atomic pieces of the creation. Obviously, I'm skipping over the human scale evidence, since that mundanely evident stuff has already been debated to death for millennia. I prefer to focus on the cutting-edge of science, where the evidence is still fresh and uncontaminated by prejudicial beliefs. By the way, if you are already familiar with these cutting-edge concepts, and I seem condescending by insinuating otherwise; I apologize. But in my experience, present company excepted, most people are happy to ignore such useless pursuits of knowledge-for-the-sake-of knowing.
Modern materialists don't seem to have a problem believing that the world is made of ethereal Energy. They accept the current scientific creed that the matter we see is made of atomic particles, which in turn are made of invisible energy. Before you insist that we can see or detect energy, please recall that electricity, for example, is not energy per se, it's simply the physical consequence of energy flowing from one material electron to another. The same energy that makes-up electrons also constitutes neutrons and protons. If we can accept the idea of invisible Forces taking material form as a reasonable concept, then why should we balk at the idea that energy is actually a manifested form of information? What “flows” between physical objects is the “force” that we could just as well call “En-form-action”. Some other terms for (I) are “relationships”, “ratios”, “probabilities”, “ideas”, “concepts”, “designs”, and so forth.
So, what is Information made of? Nothing. Literally no-thing. No physical substance, that is. Information, in the technical sense, is composed of an invisible, immaterial, meta-physical, meta-substance. Nonsensical word-play, you say. That’s right, the sensible, material world is made of stuff that only makes sense to a mind. Hence, I conclude that the Real world is actually made of Ideal mindstuff. While you grapple with that counter-intuitive concept, I’ll give you another preview, and then wait for your questions and comments (in the Feedback section). If matter and energy are essentially different forms of fundamental information, and if information is essentially Mind-Stuff, then the comprehensive Cosmos may be envisioned metaphorically as a Great Mind thinking great thoughts, and imagining you and me. However, although the external Cause of the physical universe would have to be super-natural, by definition, the meta-physical Information that constitutes the cosmos is as natural as electrons and numbers. ●
Enformy: The Capacity to Organize Chapter 19 in Thinking on the Edge,
R. A. Kapnick and A. A. Kelly, eds. Burbank, CA: Agamemnon Press 1993.
Abstract : Life has developed and increased in complexity on earth despite the universal principle of increasing entropy. This indicates the operation of a principle that describes the tendency toward organization, away from randomness. Though life is an expression of increasing organization, studies of life itself are limited because science has provided no theoretical construct for organization per se. Herein, this concept is provided as enformy, the capacity to organize.
Enformy is conserved. It is also inter-transformable with energy and mass. Thus, energy, mass, and enformy are three distinct descriptors of the universe. Energy accounts for work, mass accounts for matter, and enformy accounts for organization.
The concept of enformy and its implications not only explains the occurrence of life, it resolves the classical mind/body problem, and predicts the occurrence of telepathy and "ghost" phenomena. Because it also applies to non-living systems, the concept resolves the mysteries of Schrodinger's cat of quantum mechanics and the principle of least action of classical mechanics. Thus, enformy provides a conceptual framework for integrating the physical, biological, and psychological sciences..
Here's an abstract from a book proposing the concept of "Enformy" (which is equivalent to En-Form-Action). My own thesis agrees with all except the items in bold (let’s just say that I am skeptical).
The a-causality and indeterminacy of Quantum theory has allowed spiritualists to assert that they have scientific support for their ghost sightings and water memory. But my layman's understanding of QT doesn't see the connection. Information is ideas, not ectoplasm; it's memes, not magic. Enformy is cosmic potential, not mystic phenomena.
Enformy
I find this novel concept of Information as the substance of reality to be fruitful. But it is also susceptible to the old philosophical side-road of reification. Metaphors which point beyond mundane reality are often mistaken for descriptions of a higher, truer Reality, when they are only embellished, earth-bound idioms.
En-Form-Action and Enformy may sound like new technical terms for ancient poetic concepts such as Spirit and Divine Will. But some of the old associations and extrapolations (such as ghosts and psycho-kinesis) may no-longer fit the more-precisely-defined structure of modern paradigms.
Or Not ?
ENFORMY
The ubiquity and nonmateriality of energy make it an attractive concept to apply to mental and biological systems. . . . However, using the energy concept in this context is a scientific dead-end because it locks one's thinking into the prevailing paradigm--which is blind to organization.
