An Inquiry Concerning the Persistence of Physical Information

Abstract

Physical information is a property of nature. How does physical information persist over time? Does it do so as an object, process, or event, which are things considered in the current persistence theories? Physical information is none of these, however, this implies that persistence theories cannot explain the persistence of information. We therefore study the persistence of snowflakes, ephemeral natural structures, to better understand the persistence of natural things, such as physical information. The transitory nature of snowflakes suggests that physical information persists as nature’s latent order, therefore, it is associated with natural structures, but it is not identical to them. This interpretation preserves the properties attributed to physical information, particularly its foundational character. The concept of physical information as latent order accords with Burgin’s General Theory of Information (GTI), which is currently the most comprehensive conceptualization of information that has been proposed.

From philosophy in science to information in nature: Michael Heller’s ideas

“…In the GTI, information is conceptualized as nature's potential to form complexes or low-entropy structures (see Krzanowski, 2023) 14 or information as a latent order in nature. 15 The concept of information as the potential of nature to create low-entropy (thermodynamic entropy) complexes (structures) appears to resemble the concept of Aristotelian potency, but the precise nature of this apparent similarity needs further research.…”

“…This process for forming low-entropy systems can go on for as long as the required conditions are satisfied. For an extended discussion of low-entropy complexes and information, see the work ofKrzanowski (2023).…”