Life

Life is the copying of information.

The theory of information was crafted by a great scientist, the mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon. Without going into the mathematical details, we can say that information is that which allows the holder of that information to make predictions, with accuracy better than chance.

There are three important concepts in this definition. First: prediction. The colloquial use of “information” suggests “knowing.” But more precisely, information implies the ability to use that knowledge to differentiate something. The second important aspect of the definition is the focus on “something other,” which reminds us that information must be about something. The third and last part concerns the accuracy of differentiation. I can easily make differentiations about another system (say, the future of the stock market), but if these differentiations are only as good as random guessing, then I did not make these differentiations using information.

One thing that the stock market example immediately suggests is that information is valuable. It is also valuable for survival: For example, knowledge enabling you to predict the trajectory of a predator so that you can escape it is extremely valuable information. Indeed, it is possible to think of the entirety of the information stored in our genes in terms of the predictions it makes about the world in which we find ourselves: how to make a body that uses the information so that it can be replicated, how to acquire the energy to keep the body going, and how to survive in the world up until replication is accomplished. And while it is gratifying to know that our existence can succinctly be described as “information that can replicate itself,” the immediate follow-up question is, “Where did this information come from?”

TOoHNA holds that Quantum Information can be come into existence, ether by coping under the right circumstances(if the states happen to be orthogonal) or the spontaneous generation of information based on pre existing state(You may not be able to copy information but you can find it); that is Actuality has a positive entropy rate.