Ask A Genius 484 – Generic Information and Context
December 25, 2018
[Beginning of recorded material]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There are different forms of information. One in a highly organized system but spread out. Another tightly knit and appears to make information, too.
Rick Rosner: Information probably isn’t information without context and the ability to interpret it as information. The information to the universe is only information to the universe. It is matter, space, and energy to us, not information.
We can pull information out of it. The universe isnt’ an information map to us. The universe is the material universe. That’s not to say that we can at some point become sufficiently technologically advanced to figure out to some extent the information of which the universe is made from.
But if it is holographic, then good luck with that. It probably is given the lack of specificity. The universe is basically a bunch of solar systems. It is not like one means asparagus and another means orange.
The information is probably not that localized. Which means, it is some kind of holographic or distributive deal. In any case, when people think of information, I have not thought about what people think about when they think of “information.”
I think people think information is there for the seeing. You see a stop sign that says, “Stop.” Okay, it is information. All information has a conveyance of what it is via a visual aspect.
I am looking at a vanilla folder, a box from Target, a plant. I suspect the information is conveyed visually. But I suspect the information is only available if you have evolved to interpret the information, as we have done.
Those former examples are bits of information. They are conveyed. But they are only available through my sensory and thought apparatus. This probably applies to all information. The easy information that we see.
There is the big data information is on the way, once we’re half computers in 40 years. We will all sorts of new information in the universe. Because we will have all these new sensory and processing capacities.
All information in the universe may be this way. It may be opaque and unreadable unless you have the right apparatus to read it properly. It doesn’t mean that you need a conscious entity to gather information and to act on information.
Information may only exist to the extent that it is registered by the rest of the universe.
[End of recorded material]
Authors[1]
Rick Rosner
American Television Writer
Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Editor-in-Chief, In-Sight Publishing
Footnotes
[1] Four format points for the session article:
- Bold text following “Scott Douglas Jacobsen:” or “Jacobsen:” is Scott Douglas Jacobsen & non-bold text following “Rick Rosner:” or “Rosner:” is Rick Rosner.
- Session article conducted, transcribed, edited, formatted, and published by Scott.
- Footnotes & in-text citations in the interview & references after the interview.
- This session article has been edited for clarity and readability.
For further information on the formatting guidelines incorporated into this document, please see the following documents:
- American Psychological Association. (2010). Citation Guide: APA. Retrieved from http://www.lib.sfu.ca/system/files/28281/APA6CitationGuideSFUv3.pdf.
- Humble, A. (n.d.). Guide to Transcribing. Retrieved from http://www.msvu.ca/site/media/msvu/Transcription%20Guide.pdf.
License and Copyright
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com and www.rickrosner.org.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Rick Rosner, and In-Sight Publishing 2012-2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Rick Rosner, and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Rick Rosner 