Where are the bits in atoms? A perspective on the physical origin and evolutionary nature of information
Date and time: 13 February 2025, time to be confirmed
Speaker: Wouter van der Wijngaart
Title: Where are the bits in atoms? A perspective on the physical origin and evolutionary nature of information
Where: Digital Futures hub, Osquars Backe 5, floor 2 at KTH main campus OR Zoom
Directions: https://www.digitalfutures.kth.se/contact/how-to-get-here/
OR
Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/69560887455
Host: TBC
Administrator: TBC
Abstract: Information is a structural pattern that represents another structural pattern. In this talk, I hypothesise that modelling of structure creation through causal sets can elucidate the natural origin, evolution and ontology of information.
The world around us is abundant with recurrent structures and patterns. These spatially or temporally persistent patterns in bound matter systems emerge either spontaneously—through symmetry breaking or self-organization—or by processing instructions that are coded in stored information, which applies to all biological, social, and human-derived structures. Fundamentally, stored information represents an external entity. In the physical world, this representation is not abstract; rather, it is instantiated materially as a patterned structure. Transforming such information structures through time constitutes information storage while transforming them through space constitutes communication. It is important to stress that information is not a property of a given structure; rather, it is a different structure representing the given structure. For example, the presence or absence of rain is not information as such; rather, the data stored in the memory of a rain sensor constitutes information and this information represents the presence or absence of rain. This example also highlights that information exists independent of human interpretation.
The aim of this talk is to examine the fundamental nature of the link between stored information and the external pattern it represents. I approach this question by investigating the origin of the structures, i.e., their creation. Specifically, I investigate how patterned structures naturally emerge to represent external conditions by questioning which patterned structures constitute information and which do not.
To address this challenge, I introduce the modelling of material systems as causal sets of structures that are partially ordered by an operator that indicates which structures actively contribute to the creation of others. Specific patterns within these causal sets allow defining which structures constitute information and illuminate the close relationship between information and evolution. The evolutionary nature of information suggests information can be quantified by its evolutionary fitness, potentially extending Shannon entropy. I further propose that five different information material systems and their processing — the absence of information, genes consisting of DNA, memes consisting of neural synapse patterns, inanimate structures processed by humans, and inanimate structures processed by machines — give rise to five distinct emergent layers of self-organization: the physical, biological, cultural, civilizational, and cybernetic layers, respectively. Finally, I touch upon the epistemological implications of this perspective, particularly its impact on our understanding of knowledge, science, and mathematics.
The aim of this manuscript is not to provide a strictly empirical study; rather, it introduces a speculative hypothesis on the naturally evolving nature of information, intended as a conceptual framework for further investigation, and future research and discussion across multiple domains.
Bio: Wouter van der Wijngaart has degrees in Electrotechnical Engineering (MSc), Philosophic Academy, and Mathematics Education (KU Leuven, 1996) and a PhD in microsystem technology (KTH, 2002). He has been a Full Professor in Micro and Nanosystems at KTH since 2010.