Does information need a physical substrate?
- Felix
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Re: Does information need a physical substrate?
Transfer of information via photon, a subatomic particle that has zero invariant mass, so in effect lacks a physical substrate - and other "spooky action at a distance" quantum mechanical effects have been documented.
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Re: Does information need a physical substrate?
Photons, actions at a distance etc. are physical descriptions of the microscopic structure of matter, the pysical substrate of information and consciousness. Which does not necessarily mean a materialistic standpoint.Felix wrote: ↑May 16th, 2019, 10:46 pm "Show an example where "information" might have been transmitted or preserved without a physical substrate, and I'll consider the question as a serious one."
Transfer of information via photon, a subatomic particle that has zero invariant mass, so in effect lacks a physical substrate - and other "spooky action at a distance" quantum mechanical effects have been documented.
- Consul
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Re: Does information need a physical substrate?
As for the physical possibility of superluminal information transfer, see:
Action at a Distance in Quantum Mechanics > Superluminal Signaling
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Re: Does information need a physical substrate?
(Information is either an abstraction of a physical system, or information is another conceptualization of a physical system. Massless particles and entanglement are also physical in this context.)
Unfortunately dualistic thinking is so deeply ingrained, that even many scientists fall into the trap of seeing information as distinct from matter/energy.
- Sculptor1
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Re: Does information need a physical substrate?
Can you demonstrate any information without a physical substrate?BigBango wrote: ↑October 6th, 2018, 11:47 pm I would like to see some opinions on this subject.
The physicalists/materialists would certainly answer this question in the affirmative because everything about reality is physical.
In this thread, I am more interested in what the dual aspect theorists have to say.
If we characterize a living being as having both a physicality and a "mental" nature, a subject that has experiential states, what is the status or character of the information that is "in his mind". Does that information have a physical substrate"?
If I believe that the square root of the sum of two sides of a right triangle is the length of the hypotenuse then what do you believe is the "physical substrate" of that abstraction?
In favor of the materialists is the fact that the 2nd law of thermodynamics seems to be validated by it's correspondence to the flow of information. That is, as entropy increases, information is lost!
In favor of the dual aspect position is the fact that mental abstractions do not seem to be subject to the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
In conclusion one cannot ignore "Plato" the father of philosophy. To Plato the world of abstractions created a shadow world of physicality.
I'll save you the trouble, You cannot.
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