Facts and Information
99
belief that what we perceive to be a fact is a fact in some absolute material sense,
even if it was never articulated or described. In other words, we entertain the
myth that the universe is full of unperceived and never-articulated facts.
Information exists only for living observers, because it must be registered in
awareness. Again, the shape (or content) of a fact is not located in the physical
unfolding of an event, but in the observer who sees it. This suggests that in
the early universe, before the emergence of life, things happened but they did
not give rise to information nor did they have any description or organization.
What we regard as real are things given by information and therefore registered
in consciousness. Prior to the existence of conscious awareness, there were
physical processes, but they were virtual and not actual because they were not
impressed on any aware observer.
In this view, something “magical” happens when a sentient observer registers
a fact. What was, perhaps a moment ago, no more than atoms in haphazard
motion, suddenly becomes an organized and meaningful fact. The event of
being observed does not bring about any change in the matter or its pattern of
motion. The change is confined to the observer. It is the observer that creates
organization and gives rise to a new wholistic constituent of reality. This aspect
of reality is restricted to the observer.
This is a powerful and far-reaching proposal. What it claims is that all of
reality is divided into two very different branches. There is the purely material
aspect of reality which encompasses matter and energy playing by the rules
of physics. In addition, there is information—or rather knowledge—which
is immaterial and which presents a far wider picture of what there is in the
universe, since it includes form, structure and Gestalt complexity.
This claim is a huge challenge to the materialistic philosophy of our times.
According to the prevailing world-view of the 21st Century, all that exists in
the universe is matter (which is equivalent to energy) in the forms prescribed
by modern physics. In the materialist view, everything else, including feelings,
sensations, desires and thoughts consist of physical processes that take place in
the brain. In the place of materialism, what is proposed here is that ours is a
two-tiered universe. Two different kinds of things co-exist in the universe, one
material and the other immaterial but nonetheless real and effective. Apparently
it is only in living matter that the two interact. One may speculate that is the
underlying cosmic function of life.
99
belief that what we perceive to be a fact is a fact in some absolute material sense,
even if it was never articulated or described. In other words, we entertain the
myth that the universe is full of unperceived and never-articulated facts.
Information exists only for living observers, because it must be registered in
awareness. Again, the shape (or content) of a fact is not located in the physical
unfolding of an event, but in the observer who sees it. This suggests that in
the early universe, before the emergence of life, things happened but they did
not give rise to information nor did they have any description or organization.
What we regard as real are things given by information and therefore registered
in consciousness. Prior to the existence of conscious awareness, there were
physical processes, but they were virtual and not actual because they were not
impressed on any aware observer.
In this view, something “magical” happens when a sentient observer registers
a fact. What was, perhaps a moment ago, no more than atoms in haphazard
motion, suddenly becomes an organized and meaningful fact. The event of
being observed does not bring about any change in the matter or its pattern of
motion. The change is confined to the observer. It is the observer that creates
organization and gives rise to a new wholistic constituent of reality. This aspect
of reality is restricted to the observer.
This is a powerful and far-reaching proposal. What it claims is that all of
reality is divided into two very different branches. There is the purely material
aspect of reality which encompasses matter and energy playing by the rules
of physics. In addition, there is information—or rather knowledge—which
is immaterial and which presents a far wider picture of what there is in the
universe, since it includes form, structure and Gestalt complexity.
This claim is a huge challenge to the materialistic philosophy of our times.
According to the prevailing world-view of the 21st Century, all that exists in
the universe is matter (which is equivalent to energy) in the forms prescribed
by modern physics. In the materialist view, everything else, including feelings,
sensations, desires and thoughts consist of physical processes that take place in
the brain. In the place of materialism, what is proposed here is that ours is a
two-tiered universe. Two different kinds of things co-exist in the universe, one
material and the other immaterial but nonetheless real and effective. Apparently
it is only in living matter that the two interact. One may speculate that is the
underlying cosmic function of life.