The universe may be more than only information
John Wheeler was a strong believer that the universe is information. Famously, he stated that we get “it from bit”. At a 1989 Sante Fe Institute lecture he said,
every it — every particle, every field of force, even the spacetime continuum itself — derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely — even if in some contexts indirectly — from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits.
The question is whether the universe can be represented entirely in this way or whether there is something deeper that no set of bits could hold.
On this rests not only our understanding of the true, fundamental nature of reality but also whether a perfect simulation of reality is possible. Can a species develop a universe that is purely information containing conscious beings?
Wheeler’s assertion can be cast as a realist’s hypothesis that the universe is discrete, made of individual bits of information. Quantum theory demands that these bits not be ordinary bits but quantum bits or qubits. The answer to a yes-no question in the quantum realm is never just yes or no but yes and no with probabilities assigned to each.
Qubits are represented by quantum properties and each quantum particle typically has both discrete and continuous…
