It from bit or bit from it? : on physics and information

240 Pages·2015·4.88 MB·English

by  Aguirre

T H E F R O N T I E R S C O L L E C T I O N
Anthony Aguirre
Brendan Foster
Zeeya Merali
(Eds.)
IT FROM BIT
OR
BIT FROM IT?
On Physics and Information
THE FRONTIERS COLLECTION
Series editors
Avshalom C. Elitzur
Unit of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bar-Ilan University, 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel
e-mail: [email protected]
Laura Mersini-Houghton
Department of Physics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,
NC 27599-3255, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
T. Padmanabhan
Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) Pune, India
Maximilian A. Schlosshauer
Department of Physics, University of Portland, Portland, OR 97203, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
Mark P. Silverman
Department of Physics, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
Jack A. Tuszynski
Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1Z2, Canada
e-mail: [email protected]
Rüdiger Vaas
Center for Philosophy and Foundations of Science, University of Giessen,
35394 Giessen, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
THE FRONTIERS COLLECTION
Series Editors
A.C. Elitzur L. Mersini-Houghton T. Padmanabhan M.A. Schlosshauer
M.P. Silverman J.A. Tuszynski R. Vaas
The books in this collection are devoted to challenging and open problems at the
forefront of modern science, including related philosophical debates.In contrast to
typical research monographs, however, they strive to present their topics in a
manner accessible also to scientifically literate non-specialists wishing to gain
insight into thedeeper implicationsandfascinating questions involved.Taken asa
whole,theseriesreflectstheneedforafundamentalandinterdisciplinaryapproach
to modern science. Furthermore, it is intended to encourage active scientists in all
areas to ponder over important and perhaps controversial issues beyond their own
speciality. Extending from quantum physics and relativity to entropy, conscious-
ness and complex systems—the Frontiers Collection will inspire readers to push
back the frontiers of their own knowledge.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5342
Forafulllistofpublishedtitles,pleaseseebackofbookorspringer.com/series/5342
Anthony Aguirre Brendan Foster
(cid:129)
Zeeya Merali
Editors
IT FROM BIT OR BIT
FROM IT?
On Physics and Information
123
Editors
AnthonyAguirre ZeeyaMerali
Department of Physics FoundationalQuestions Institute
Universityof California New York, NY
SantaCruz,CA USA
USA
Brendan Foster
FoundationalQuestions Institute
New York, NY
USA
ISSN 1612-3018 ISSN 2197-6619 (electronic)
THE FRONTIERSCOLLECTION
ISBN 978-3-319-12945-7 ISBN 978-3-319-12946-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-12946-4
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014957160
SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2015
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Preface
This book is a collaborative project between Springer and The Foundational
Questions Institute (FQXi). In keeping with both the tradition of Springer’s
FrontiersCollectionandthemissionofFQXi,itprovidesstimulatinginsightsintoa
frontier area of science, while remaining accessible enough to benefit a non-
specialist audience.
FQXi is an independent, nonprofit organization that was founded in 2006. It
aimstocatalyze,support,anddisseminateresearchonquestionsatthefoundations
of physics and cosmology.
The central aim of FQXi is to fund and inspire research and innovation that is
integraltoadeepunderstandingofreality,butwhichmaynotbereadilysupported
byconventionalfundingsources.Historically,physicsandcosmologyhaveoffered
a scientific framework for comprehending the core of reality. Many giants of
modernscience—suchasEinstein,Bohr,Schrödinger,andHeisenberg—werealso
passionately concerned with, and inspired by, deep philosophical nuances of the
novel notions of reality they were exploring. Yet, such questions are often over-
looked by traditional funding agencies.
Often, grant-making and research organizations institutionalize a pragmatic
approach,primarilyfundingincrementalinvestigationsthatuseknownmethodsand
familiar conceptual frameworks, rather than the uncertain and often interdisci-
plinary methods required to develop and comprehend prospective revolutions in
physics and cosmology. As a result, even eminent scientists can struggle to secure
fundingforsomeofthequestionstheyfindmostengaging,whileyoungerthinkers
findlittlesupport,freedom,orcareerpossibilitiesunlesstheyhewtosuchstrictures.
FQXi views foundational questions not as pointless speculation or misguided
effort, but as critical and essential inquiry of relevance to us all. The Institute is
dedicated to redressing these shortcomings by creating a vibrant, worldwide
community of scientists, top thinkers, and outreach specialists who tackle deep
questions in physics, cosmology, and related fields. FQXi is also committed to
engaging with the public and communicating the implications of this foundational
research for the growth of human understanding.
v
vi Preface
Aspartofthisendeavor,FQXiorganizesanannualessaycontest,whichisopen
toeveryone,fromprofessionalresearcherstomembersofthepublic.Thesecontests
are designed to focus minds and efforts on deep questions that could have a pro-
found impact across multiple disciplines. The contest is judged by an expert panel
andupto20prizesareawarded.Eachyear,thecontestfeatureswelloverahundred
entries, stimulating ongoing online discussion for many months after the close
of the contest.
We are delighted to share this collection, inspired by the 2013 contest, “It from
Bit or Bit from It?” In line with our desire to bring foundational questions to the
widest possible audience, the entries, in their original form, were written in a style
that was suitable for the general public. In this book, which is aimed at an inter-
disciplinaryscientificaudience,theauthorshavebeeninvitedtoexpandupontheir
original essays and include technical detailsand discussion that may enhance their
essays for a more professional readership, while remaining accessible to non-
specialists in their field.
FQXi would like to thank our contest partners: The Gruber Foundation, The
John Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American. The editors are indebted to
FQXi’s scientific director, Max Tegmark, and managing director, Kavita Rajanna,
who were instrumental in the development of the contest. We are also grateful to
Angela Lahee at Springer for her guidance and support in driving this project
forward.
2014 Anthony Aguirre
Brendan Foster
Zeeya Merali
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Anthony Aguirre, Brendan Foster and Zeeya Merali
2 “It from Bit” and the Quantum Probability Rule. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
M.S. Leifer
3 It from Qubit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano
4 Drawing Quantum Contextuality with ‘Dessins d’enfants’. . . . . . . 37
Michel Planat
5 The Tao of It and Bit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Ovidiu Cristinel Stoica
6 Information-Based Physics and the Influence Network . . . . . . . . . 65
Kevin H. Knuth
7 Relative Information at the Foundation of Physics. . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Carlo Rovelli
8 Information and the Foundations of Quantum Theory. . . . . . . . . 87
Angelo Bassi, Saikat Ghosh and Tejinder Singh
9 An Insight into Information, Entanglement and Time. . . . . . . . . . 97
Paul L. Borrill
10 These from Bits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Yutaka Shikano
vii
viii Contents
11 Self-similarity, Conservation of Entropy/bits and the Black
Hole Information Puzzle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Douglas Singleton, Elias C. Vagenas and Tao Zhu
12 Spacetime Weave—Bit as the Connection Between
Its or the Informational Content of Spacetime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Torsten Asselmeyer-Maluga
13 Now Broadcasting in Planck Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Craig Hogan
14 Is Spacetime Countable?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Sean Gryb and Marc Ngui
15 Without Cause. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Mark Feeley
16 Reality, No Matter How You Slice It. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Ken Wharton
17 Bit from It. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Julian Barbour
18 Contextuality: Wheeler’s Universal Regulating Principle . . . . . . . 213
Ian T. Durham
19 It from Bit from It from Bit ... Nature and Nonlinear Logic. . . . . 225
Wm. C. McHarris
Titles in this Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Appendix: List of Winners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Chapter 1
Introduction
AnthonyAguirre,BrendanFoster andZeeyaMerali
‘Itfrombit’symbolizestheideathateveryitemofthephysical
worldhasatbottom—ataverydeepbottom,inmost
instances—animmaterialsourceandexplanation;thatwhatwe
callrealityarisesinthelastanalysisfromtheposingofyes-no
questionsandtheregisteringofequipment-evokedresponses;in
short,thatallthingsphysicalareinformation-theoreticinorigin
andthisisaparticipatoryuniverse.
JohnArchibaldWheeler(1989)
Over the past century, there has been a steady progression away from thinking
about physics, at its deepest level, as a description of material objects and their
interactions, and towards physics as a description of the evolution of information
about, and in, the physical world. Information theory encompasses the apparently
inherent probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, our statistical understanding
ofthermodynamicalsystems,andcomputerscience,wheretheencodingofdatais
described classically using rules laid out by Claude Shannon. Recent years have
seen an explosion of interest at the nexus of physics and information, driven by
theinformationageinwhichweliveandbydevelopmentsinquantuminformation
theoryandcomputerscience.
Theideathatinformationismorefundamentalthanthematterthatconveysitwas
famouslyencapsulatedbyphysicistJohnArchibaldWheelerinthephrase“Itfrom
Bit”.Wheelerwasprofoundlyawareofthepeculiarrelationshipbetweeninforma-
tion and the measurements made by observers of quantum systems: He proposed
a“delayed-choiceexperiment”usinglight—whichhassincebeendemonstratedin
the laboratory—in which it appears that choices made by an experimenter after a
B
A.Aguirre( )
DepartmentofPhysics,UniversityofCalifornia,SantaCruz,CA,USA
e-mail:[email protected]
B.Foster·Z.Merali
FoundationalQuestionsInstitute,NewYork,NY,USA
e-mail:[email protected]
Z.Merali
e-mail:[email protected]
©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2015 1
A.Aguirreetal.(eds.),ItFromBitorBitFromIt?,
TheFrontiersCollection,DOI10.1007/978-3-319-12946-4_1