Information, Organization and Emergence

Originally posted in my old blog in September 2008.

One of the most interesting ideas to come out of 20th century science is the possibility that the Universe is information. Information organized into a particular format results in the emergence of a yet higher form of information and reality. Changing something about the fundamental organization of the information at a particular level of reality can destroy or change drastically the higher levels of reality built upon it. For example, imagine tweaking one of the 6 constant numbers responsible for the organization of our Universe. Reality as we know it would cease to exist.

Much of the important technology in the 21st century is information technology. This kind of technology is pure organization of information. Web technologies that did not exist 20 years ago are higher levels of information organization. New techniques for creating online applications are different ways of organizing information than those of creating desktop applications. The fundamental unit of currency is information.

Financial reality in the modern sense is all about information organization. I never see the millions of dollars I will make in my lifetime for the most part. It exists as an idea that is made concrete on a computer screen. Because of the numbers I may see in a particular organization on a web site (itself built by chains and levels of information organization) I may feel happy or sad, confident or insecure.

I may go to work and spend my days organizing information, creating new ways to organize information. At the end of the pay period other numbers are organized into a particular format of wages, tax deductions, retirement plans and health benefits. I organize information and I am paid by the organization of other information. I can eat because of these abstract ways of information organization that have emerged from lower level ways of concrete organization found in earlier economic systems that included bartering and exchange of gold.

Regarding emergence.

The spiritual emerges from the psychological which emerges from the physical organism which emerges from the laws of biology which emerge from the laws of chemistry which emerge from the laws of physics.

My blog emerged from web technologies which emerged from software technologies which emerged from hardware technologies which emerged from quantum physics which ultimately emerged from lower levels of information which constitute the fundamental fabric of the Universe.