Information in the Universe and in the Organism
Information in the Universe
The insight now emerging in the physical sciences, especially but not exclusively in quantum physics, highlights the role of interaction and interconnection in the diverse spheres of observation and experiment. This is not a material universe where bits of matter enter into interaction, exchange kinetic or chemical energy and thereby shape the behavior of basically material entities. In the final count there is no such thing as “matter” in the universe, nor indeed is there such a thing as energy, taken as a fundamental category of physical existence. This is a universe where the quantum vacuum (better seen as a “sub-quantum plenum” for it underlies the level of quanta and is a virtual-energy filled substrate rather than empty space) is the cosmic matrix in which the particles and systems that constitute the furnishings of the world arise. The quantum vacuum/plenum is an integration of what we used to think of as energy and information. It is a field of informed energy.
The particles that appear as the material furnishings of the universe are entangled excitations of the ground state of this cosmic matrix. The systems that appear as objects composed of material particles are locally manifest yet intrinsically entangled configurations of excitations in that matrix. The particles and systems we observe emerged in the course of evolution in the cosmos. Following the Big Bang (which appears to have been a Big Bounce, a phase-change in the sequence of local universes in the multiverse) the first entities to emerge were photons, protons, neutrons and electrons, and other, more short-lived exchange particles. In processes of galactic and stellar evolution the higher-order configurations we know as the atoms of the elements had emerged.
The current furnishings of spacetime are superordinate configurations of the excitations of the cosmic matrix. Galaxies are composed of stars and stellar systems, and stars are composed of atoms and particles. All these systems are composed of particles, and particles are entangled excitations of the matrix. Atoms, molecules, cells, organisms—and on the macroscale planets, stars, stellar systems and galaxies—are in the final count superordinate quantum systems: various-level configurations of informed energy.
On suitable planetary surfaces higher-order configurations of informed energy made their appearance. We call the self-maintaining and self-reproducing variety of these configurations living organisms.
Life is not accidental or extraneous phenomena in the universe: the latest observations in astrophysics show that the basic building elements of life, including glycine (which is an amino acid), and ethylene gycol (a compound associated with the formation of sugars in organisms) are synthesized in the course of the physico-chemical evolution of stars. The surface of planets associated with active stars are templates for the further complexification of these elements, building sequentially higher order configurations of informed-energy.
Information is a paramount factor in the emergence and persistence of informed-energy configurations. In the absence of information the energies present in the universe would be a random concourse of excitations of its ground state. Information structures the energy-sea of the cosmic matrix, and coordinates interaction among the structures.
The Holographic Theory of Spacetime Information
The latest experiments suggest that the information that governs the configurations of informed-energy in spacetime is holographic. Holograms carry the information that produces the holographicimageinadistributedform:alltheinformation in the hologram ispresent atall its points.Consequentlythe completeimageappearswhenanysmallpartoftheholographic medium isilluminated,althoughitsdefinitionisproportionaltothe size of the illuminated area. It may be that the universe—or at least the field or dimension physicists know as spacetime—is a hologram, more exactly, a medium in which information is coded holographically.
Evidence in support of this hypothesis surfaced in the spring of 2013. Fermilab physicist Craig Hogan suggested that the fluctuations observed by the German gravity-wave detector known as GEO600 may be due to the graininess of spacetime. (According to string theory, at the supersmall scale spacetime is not smooth but patterned by minuscule ripples: it is ”grainy.”) The GEO600 gravity wave-detector did find inhomogeneities in the matrix that constitutes spacetime, but these did not appear to be gravity-waves. Could it be, Hogan asked, that these inhomogeneities are the ripples that string-theory claims pattern the microstructure of spacetime? This would be the case if the micro-inhomogeneities are 3D projections of information coded in 2D at the circumference of spacetime. Then events within spacetime would be 3D projections of this 2D information.
This possibility is raised by extending the theory of holographic information-coding to spacetime as a whole. The holographic information-coding hypothesis has been proposed to account for the anomaly implied by the “evaporation” of black holes. It would appear that as black holes evaporate, the information contained in them is lost. This is a problem, because information, according to contemporary physics, cannot be lost in the universe.
The theory advanced by Stephen Hawking in the early 1970s claims that black holes emit radiation; this causes them to “evaporate” and to ultimately vanish. However, according to Hawking’s black-holes model, this radiation does not convey information about the interior of a black hole. When the black hole has radiated all its matter-energies, all the information about the star that had collapsed and became the black hole will have disappeared.
This anomaly has been resolved when Hebrew University cosmologist Jacob Bekenstein discovered that the information present in the black hole (a quantity equal to its entropy) is proportional to the surface area of its event-horizon—the horizon beyond which matter and energy cannot escape from the black hole. Physicists have subsequently shown that quantum waves at the event-horizon encode the information present in the black hole. This information remains is proportional to the volume of the black hole, thus there is no unaccounted-for information-loss as the black hole evaporates. The assumption is that information within the black hole is encoded at its boundary, and can be accessed at its boundary.
Leonard Susskind and Gerard’t Hooft applied the principle of information-coding to spacetime as a whole. They pointed out that spacetime has an event-horizon of its own: it is the circumference of the area that light has reached since the birth of the universe. Juan Maldacena demonstrated that the physical properties of a 5D universe are identical with the physics of its 4D boundary.
According to the extension of the black holes holographic theory to the whole of spacetime, events in our 3D universe are encoded in 2D at the spacetime boundary, much as a three-dimensional image is encoded in two dimensions on the film of a conventional hologram. It follows that also the 3D graininess of spacetime is encoded at the two-dimensional boundary of spacetime. The coding is in “bits”: each of the Planck-dimensional squares (i.e., squares of which the sides are of Planck-length: 10-35 meter) that extend throughout the spacetime boundary codes one bit of information. This is a logical assumption, but it cannot be empirically verified: events at the Planck-scale are too small to be observed.
Applying the holograph theory of black holes to spacetime overcomes this problem. Given that the volume of the universe—the same as the volume of any physical body—is larger than its surface by a known factor (the surface-to-volume ratio can be calculated by dividing the surface area by the volume), 3D events within spacetime must be larger by a definite factor than the area that codes it. If the area of the code is a Planck-dimensional square, the 3D events that each square codes must be larger than the square itself: they must be of the order not of 10-35, but of 10-16 meters.
Events of this larger dimension can be measured. Possibly, they have already been measured. Hogan hypothesized that the hitherto unexplained fluctuations found by the GEO600 gravity-wave detector are ripples in the micro-structure of spacetime. Experiments at the time of writing indicate that Hogan’s hypothesis is valid. The inhomogeneities found by the gravity-wave detector are precisely of the order of 10-16 meter!
If this observation is confirmed by repeated experiments, it might seem that we are entitled to conclude that our 3D universe is a holographic projection of the 2D information at its boundary. This, however, is a questionable assumption; it builds the evidence for holographic information coding into a cosmic principle. It is more reasonable to conclude that the information that governs and connects phenomena in our 3D universe is holographically coded. It consists of 2-dimensional information patterns at the boundary that match the three-dimensional phenomena within.
Information in Living Systems
Whether the information that codes three-dimensional events in spacetime is coded in two dimensions at its boundary, or is present in spacetime independently of its boundary conditions, it is clear that information is a basic factor in spacetime: it governs the events that arise and evolve throughout space and time.
The information that governs the specific configuration of matter-energies that constitute living systems is highly specific. Precise information is required to insure that the organism maintains itself in its physically improbable state far from thermal and chemical equilibrium. This state is required, however, to make available the free energy needed to import negative entropy from the organism’s surroundings, and re-export the entropy produced by irreversible processes within the organism. This entropy-transport across the organism’s boundaries is the physical precondition of life. Achieving and maintaining it calls for staggeringly precise governance and coordination. Any lapse of precision spells danger for the living system. It signifies actual or potential disease.
Precise information is required to ensure governance and coordination in the organism, and between the organism and its environment. The enormity of this task is not to be underestimated. The human organism consists of some 1014 cells, and each cell produces some 10,000 bio-electro-chemical reactions each and every second. This multidimensional quasi-instant “living symphony” is specifically focused on the paramount task of maintaining the organism in its physically improbable but dynamically maintainable non-equilibrium state.
Information in the living system, as in all complex informed-energy configurations, appears in a tow-fold guise. Information is part of the basic “substance” of the systems, and it is also the logic responsible for structuring the substance on superordinate levels. Living systems can be defined as self-maintaining superordinate informed-energy configurations arising in the universe in favorable physico-chemical environments.
On the one hand information governs the basic “substance” that underlies spacetime phenomena, and on the other information orients the various configurations of this substance. Thus there is basic or “elemental” information in living systems, and there is also specific “configurational” information.
Configurational information is what differentiates one system in the universe from another. The difference between a hydrogen atom and a complex molecular compound of atoms in myriad combinations is the information that codes the hydrogen atom as compared with the information that codes the molecular compound. In the same way, the difference between an amoeba and a chimpanzee—or, for that matter, between a zebra fish and Einstein—is the information that codes each of them. Fundamentally, all living systems are self-maintaining superordinate configurations of informed energy coded by specific patterns of configurational information.
Implications for Medicine
There are multiple levels of configuration in living systems, and multiple levels of configurational information coding the levels. When it comes to interacting with such a system, the proper selection of the level of configurational information is crucial. It is not the same whether one addresses the configurational information that codes a particular part or organ of the system, or the configurational information of the whole system.
If the system develops a malfunction, correcting that malfunction calls for addressing configurational information in the system at the proper level. That level may be the cellular level, the organic level, or the level of the organism as a whole. The information that codes the different levels is not interchangeable: the information that codes a higher level is not reducible to that which codes the lower levels. This is the principle of irreducibility in a system of multiple organizational levels. The properties of the higher-level are “emergent”—they are not reducible to the properties of the parts. For example, chemical valence is not reducible to the properties of the particles in the given atom, and the consciousness associated with a human brain is not reducible to the properties of the neurons that constitute the information-processing networks of the brain.
The distinction between lower- and higher-level configurational information is essential for assessing the efficacy of treatments aimed at correcting a malfunction. Mainstream medicine uses low-level configurational information to effect treatment: information specific to the malfunctioning part of the organism. Treatment is effected by allowing the information present in various molecular compounds—natural or synthetic substances—to interact with the malfunctioning part of the organism. Information medicine, on the other hand, as it develops at present is intrinsically holistic: it interacts with the malfunctioning organism on a level where it embraces the malfunctioning part together with its relevant environment. The latter may be the pertinent organ or organ-system, or even the organism as a whole.
Interacting with information in the system at the immediate level of the malfunction involves the use of molecular substances. On the other hand, interaction at a higher level may require the modification of energy flows in the organism. The need for modifying the flows may be identified by electronic instruments such as a Radionic apparatus or the Vega test, or by intuitive means assisted by devices such as dowsing rods. The flows may be modified by means of electronic radiation-emitting instruments, or through the intuitive and intentional use of the mind and consciousness of the healer.
Both lower-level biochemical and higher-level energy-flow information-modification are valid means of maintaining or restoring health in the organism. However, their efficacy depends on the level of development of the given malfunction. Diseases normally manifest first in the breakdown or reduction of vital energy-flows. If the functionality of the flows is not restored, the molecular structure of the cells is affected, and cell-communication is disrupted or misdirected. If that condition persists, the physiological correlates of a disease become manifest.
Thus in each phase in the development of a malfunction there is an optimal and a suboptimal way of attempting treatment. In general, in the initial phases it is optimal to use informational methods to correct an incipient malfunction. Re-establishing the integrality of information in the body could restore the integrality of the energy-flows that, if untreated, would produce acute disease. When the malfunction reaches the level of physiologically evident disease, it may become necessary to make use of the specific information that codes that malfunctioning molecular structure. This means using information conveyed by the biochemical substances that make up the greater part of the instrumentation of mainstream medicine.
Information medicine interacts with the information that governs an entire organ or organ-system, or the organism as a whole. A variety of information-based treatments are available to treat malfunctions. They include energy-medicine, homeopathy, as well as intentional consciousness-based treatments. The latter have been practiced by shamans, medicine-men, and natural healers for generations.
Since information-medicine interacts with the information that is responsible for health and integrality in the organism and can diagnose and potentially correct malfunctions before they become physiologically acute, it is particularly indicated as a means of maintaining health in the organism and preventing the onset of disease. It is not limited to preventive use, however. The method developed by Dr. Pier Mario Biava is a remarkable demonstration of the capacity of information-based medicine to cure various diseases, even those that in an advanced stage would be terminal. In Biava’s treatment malfunction-correcting information is provided to the organism by a few molecules derived from the complex substance produced by the embryo at the critical junctures when stem its cells shift from a totipotential to a pluripotential and then to the multipotential and oligopotential state. This complex natural information proves more effective in reprogramming cancerous and other degenerative cells than splicing their DNA, and it is far “softer” and more effective than attempting to cure the disease caused by the mutant cells by killing them with chemical irradiation or excising them by means of surgery.
To conclude. Information is present throughout the universe: spacetime itself may be a holographically coded medium. The integrity of the information present throughout spacetime is vital for maintaining the living systems in their environment. Making appropriate use of this information is efficient and effective; the science currently emerging as “information medicine” is a logical next phase in the evolution of modern medical science. However, we should be clear that information medicine is not a substitute for biochemical medicine: both approaches are needed to complement each other, and render the repertory of treatments in modern medicine embracing and effective.