Matter Perceived As Information

Please share you insight as I hope to inspire discussion on this.

It seems like we experience this material world through information. By that I mean, our senses process signals(information) of light waves, sound waves, etc. When we look at a tree, it appears that way because our mind has put together the chemical signals from our eyes in such a way for our consciousness to experience. Everything we experience is via information being processed in our brain. Whether or not the material world outside our mind is real or not, it does not change this fact.

Many describe the material world of matter without regards to perception of it. Many refer to objects as matter, but should we refer to matter as information? Because that is the way we experience the material world.

So what do you think, is matter nothing more than information?

Or information perceived as matter, holographic universe.

Or maybe its all in a little jar.

If matter is merely information then what is information? how is it stored?

Originally posted by bhaal
If matter is merely information then what is information? how is it stored?

n a larger and more speculative sense, the theory suggests that the entire universe can be seen as a two-dimensional information structure "painted" on the cosmological horizon, such that the three dimensions we observe are only an effective description at macroscopic scales and at low energies. Cosmological holography has not been made mathematically precise, partly because the cosmological horizon has a finite area and grows with time

From wiki

Holographic principle

Maybe this information doesn't have to be stored because it is constantly being processed. I'm not saying this is the case but could be a possibility.

Originally posted by Ralphy
Please share you insight as I hope to inspire discussion on this.

It seems like we experience this material world through information. By that I mean, our senses process signals(information) of light waves, sound waves, etc. When we look at a tree, it appears that way because our mind has put together the chemical signals from our eyes in such a way for our consciousness to experience. Everything we experience is via information being processed in our brain. Whether or not the material world outside our mind is real or not, it does not change this fact.

Many describe the material world of matter without regards to perception of it. Many refer to objects as matter, but should we refer to matter as information? Because that is the way we experience the material world.

So what do you think, is matter nothing more than information?

It seems probable.

Then what is causing our eyes to send signals to our brain? There has to be a percept of some sort causing the perception. Whether it is information or matter or not I am unsure. But I am sure I wouldn't want to hit it doing 100mph.

OK, the first thing to mention here is that information is inherently physical. It is only found when it is encoded into physical systems. This is why you can't use quantum entanglement to send information instantaneously.

Second, information seems to have an existential primacy that is just as fundamental and real as matter, energy, and spacetime. Some evidence, such as the holographic principles mentioned above, point to an even more fundamental role.

Third, information has nothing whatsoever to do with your perceptions (or rather, it _is_ your perceptions but being your perceptions is nothing particularly relevant to its properties-as-information). It is a basic physical quality that is measurable and independent of your perceptions of it. It's much more like "temperature" or "mass" than it is like "beauty" or "worth".

Now, there are some interesting models that construe matter as being nothing BUT information (or rather, that matter is knotted energy, which is a mix of spacetime and information, with spacetime perhaps being an epiphenomenon itself). But that isn't really what you seemed to be talking about. The way you were phrasing and framing the question, the answer is "No. Not in the way you seem to mean."

Try James Gleik's book "The Information". It's quite well written and extremely informative.

The only thing that exists is information. On/off, yin/yang. As someone before pointed out, it is more accurate to say 'information is perceived as matter.' Physical matter, in the way we think of it, is just a particularly dense and slow-moving projection of information. Its essential nature is information.

This is a hot topic in information science now:

Digital physics

Originally posted by Ralphy
Please share you insight as I hope to inspire discussion on this.

It seems like we experience this material world through information. By that I mean, our senses process signals(information) of light waves, sound waves, etc. When we look at a tree, it appears that way because our mind has put together the chemical signals from our eyes in such a way for our consciousness to experience. Everything we experience is via information being processed in our brain. Whether or not the material world outside our mind is real or not, it does not change this fact.

Many describe the material world of matter without regards to perception of it. Many refer to objects as matter, but should we refer to matter as information? Because that is the way we experience the material world.

So what do you think, is matter nothing more than information?

I only read your OP, none of the responses yet (i will read after i post).

But i bet folks have waxed philosophical to no end, if there are any replies.

I have been toying with the notion that matter is a wavefunction frozen in a moment.


ETA: ok, having read....i am pleasantly surprised, ATS. Some great responses here.

Information (specifically residual information) is a primordial form of physical existence, and matter is not. It's as simple as that. Perception (an actual form of information in its own right) is an interpretation of internal and/or external stimuli, and each mind interprets stimuli different than any other mind interprets it. That said, matter is what the mind uses to process what it perceives, and we call that matter the brain.

And the brain does exist, and it is physical matter. And that perceiving mind really can't perceive in the way that it has always perceived (to date) if that brain becomes damaged to the point of being either nonfunctional or dysfunctional. The inference suggests that matter can't be information, but I'm not going to demand that anyone else come to that conclusion. After all, no two minds perceive reality in the same way. Perceive as you wish, but don't insist on reality to bend to your interpretations. That's just being preciously self-involved to the extreme.

Everything and all information and transformation occurs through the cosmological informational processing matrix of a fully-informed and self-aware Zero Point Field or Akashic Record (aka Book of Life). Even matter is the result of some sort of polarized crystalization of pressure waves moving through the field of light which is churns with infinite potential even in the space between the stars.

If true, we are royally screwed beyond belief AND set free within a domain of freedom about which we know nothing and can know nothing, apart from absolute release from all judgement (absolute forgiveness).

In the final analysis, we'll all get the big dose when we die, but it's best to get it over with and die and resurrect again while we're still alive, as a type of baptism in the living water of eternal life, after which death loses it's meaning and significance and thus it's "sting".

"He who keeps his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake (truth) shall find it again."
~ JC

Originally posted by NorEaster
Perceive as you wish, but don't insist on reality to bend to your interpretations. That's just being preciously self-involved to the extreme.

What about evidence that shows you can bend reality to fit your interpretations, such as these videos:

I was watching an episode of "Through the Wormhole" wish I could remember which one. Anyway, they mentioned that we only perceive our reality the way we do because of how our brain interprets the information. Meaning that if some part of the brain was changed that we would see the sky as red or some other color than blue and this could pertain just to about any other experience we take in to process in the brain. I wish I could remember more but I think it relates to what the OP said

Originally posted by Ralphy
Maybe this information doesn't have to be stored because it is constantly being processed. I'm not saying this is the case but could be a possibility.

cool idea- like a perpetual waterfall of info... except... WHAT is processing the info? A brain is matter, chemicals are too.Maybe there is no brain and info is processing info. But wouldn't it have to coordinate and coalesce somehow to perform that function with any sort of consistency? Well that's starting to sound like matter again, the grouping of particles together towards a shared purpose to process info. Maybe matter is condensed info that stopped to look at other info, hence got backed up and formed atoms/cells working in tandem because of the shared goal to perceive the flow of info... later converging into larger groupings-- brains/beings, which develop complex ways to process the waves of information still flowing around and through it, an it (we) instinctively know we are 'congealed' energy/info that sort of popped a consciousness at some point and stopped to smell the roses.

Ok, did I just wax philosophical or am I freakin sleep-deprived?

OP, you made my brain hurt, LoL...

Originally posted by arpgme

Originally posted by NorEaster
Perceive as you wish, but don't insist on reality to bend to your interpretations. That's just being preciously self-involved to the extreme.

What about evidence that shows you can bend reality to fit your interpretations, such as these videos:

This video suggests a lot and offers no proof of anything at all. If you want to believe the guy with the rice and his claims, then that's your freedom to do so, but again, that ends up being your interpretation of what you are perceiving as evidence of some sort, and it's simply not proof of anything at all. It's the guy's claims of affecting the rice that even the documentary film maker is not qualifying as being authentic.

This video, if authentic, is a demonstration of extremely focused "dynamic information" that this man's brain produces, and the startling effect of this form of information on the matrixed event trajectory holon that is the paper. This is not miraculous or the bending of reality to fit an interpretation. This does occur in natural reality, even if modern science dismisses it and traditional "wisdom" elevates it to improper levels of significance. This is what the human brain is ultimately capable of, and yet it's when the brain is finished creating the fully viable human being that this form of information is loosed into the confines of reality to achieve what it is ultimately capable of.

I see so many people trying to drag science toward mysticism in an effort to reveal the commonality between them, but the truth is that it is mysticism that will ultimately be dragged kicking and screaming to science if the two are to ever combine to fully reveal the truth about what is and isn't real. That's okay, though. I've been dragging stubborn things from there to here all my life. At least this time I've got all the equipment I need.