Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
4.16
“It From Bit” and the Triadic Theory of Reality
The following excerpt from “Geon, Black Holes & Quantum Foam: A Life
inPhysics” by Wheeler (1998) explains what is meant by his often-quoted phrase
“It from Bit” (Wheeler 1990):
...
one enormous difference separates the computer and the universe-chance. In principle,
the output of a computer is precisely determined by the input
. Chance plays no role.
In the universe, by contrast, chance plays a dominant role. The laws of physics tell us
only what may happen. Actual measurement tells us what is happening (or what did
happen). Despite this difference, it is not unreasonable to imagine that information sits at
the core of physics, just as it sits at the core of a computer.
Trying to wrap my brain around this idea of information theory as the basis of existence,
I came up with the phrase “it from bit.” The universe and all that it contains (“it”) may arise
from the myriad yes-no choices of measurement (the “bits”). Niels Bohr wrestled for most
of his life with the question of how acts of measurement (or “registration”) may affect
reality. It is registration - whether by a person or a device or a piece of mica (anything that
can preserve a record) - that changes potentiality into actuality. I build only a little on the
structure of Bohr's thinking when I suggest that we may never understand this strange
thing, the quantum, until we understand how information may underlie reality. Information
may not be just what we learn about the world. It may be what makes the world.
The last sentence reminded us of the Peircean metaphysics (described in Sect.
6.2
) of Firstness (e.g., quality, feeling, and potentiality), Secondness (e.g., facts,
actuality), and Thirdness (e.g., reason, knowledge, representation) (Peirce 1903),
motivating me to suggest another triadic representation of reality as shown in
Fig.
4.10
:
The three aspects of reality appearing in Wheeler's dictum are shown in
Fig.
4.11
as capitalized words and the texts related to them are identified as follows:
...
1. IS
¼
“Information
...
may be what makes the world
...
”
2. MEASURED
¼
“
...
the myriad yes-no choices of measurement
...
”
3. KNOWN
we understand how information may underlie reality. Informa-
tion may not be just what we learn about the world
¼
“
...
...
”
In Fig.
4.11
, the content of Fig.
4.10
is re-displayed using the format of the
triadic theory of reality (TTR) shown in Fig.
4.6
. The similarity between Wheeler's
as IS
=
Firstness
REALITY =
as MEASURED
=
Secondness
as KNOWN =
Thirdness
Fig. 4.10 An analysis of Wheeler's dictum “It from bit” based on the Peircean metaphysics
