Existing in the Information Dimension An Introduction to Emergent Information Theory

Existing in the Information Dimension An Introduction to Emergent Information Theory

By Daniel Boyd 

This book presents new insights into the nature of the human mind as a product of the brain. It does so by discussing how biological and technological information systems differ from their counterparts with physical functions, presenting Emergent Information Theory as a solution to the mind-body problem and overarching framework for all biological and technological information systems.

Emergent Information Theory is a new theoretical approach to the specific type of information and emergence exploited by biological neural networks and digital systems. One of the conclusions of this theory is that these entities and processes are non-physical and exist in an information dimension connected to but distinct from the three dimensions of physical space. It is in this information dimension that our minds exist, making it ultimately more our home as sentient beings than the physical realm inhabited by our bodies. This book presents existing scientific and philosophical evidence that leads to this conclusion, followed by application of the theory to biological and technological information systems. The author concludes with a call to action for further research.

This fascinating text will be of interest to any researcher of consciousness, the mind-body problem, or AI, as well as those working in related areas such as physical neuroscience and systems theory.

 Buy the book here.

IPI member, Deirdre McMahon publishes new book

 The Illusion Of Everything

  

 ‘The Illusion Of Everything’ is a book that explores the nature of reality from a scientific and a spiritual perspective and finds that the two have much more in common than either of them would care to admit. Culminating in a theory that points towards our universe being a calculated simulation of experiences, ‘The Illusion Of Everything’ may just be the philosophical and scientific explanation we have all been searching for. 

Buy the book here. 

IPI Talk – Ali Eslami, California, USA

Our next IPI Talk will be on Saturday, 19th of October at 10.00 AM London time. 

Title: Trends in AI and predictions for the future

Abstract: AI continues to rapidly advance as we make the inexorable march towards AGI. Recent developments foreshadow the AI future. In this talk I will give you a short update on the technology, as well as my thoughts on what it means for the future of work and wealth. 

Speaker:  Ali Eslami

BIO: Ali Eslami is a tech entrepreneur with a broad background in software development and executive consulting. Starting to code at 8 years old, Ali eventually led a company that developed private crypto trading software focused on liquidity aggregation and synchronized execution. Over the years, Ali has also provided executive consulting to board members of Paramount Studios and the owner of the Lakers NBA team.

As a former professional poker player, Ali has played in some of the highest limit cash games in the world and has also had success on the tournament circuit, with a World Series of Poker bracelet and ring, as well as numerous televised final tables. Ali was selected for the 2007 man-vs-machine match against the "Polaris", the University of Alberta's preeminent poker playing AI, due to his combination of poker expertise and technical background. He and his teammate, Phil Laak, emerged with a close victory in the highly publicized match. Ali was also a member of the US poker team at the inaugural International Mind Sports competition, where he competed against players from around the world in poker games held inside the pods of the iconic London Eye.

19th of Oct. at 10.00 AM London time. Online ZOOM lecture - link will be emailed to the IPI members.

 

 

Emerging Minds Journal award for 2023 -2024

 Emerging Minds Journal award for 2023 -2024 academic year

Each year Emerging Minds Journal offers Awards for most significant contributions.

We are pleased to announce that The Winner of the 2023-2024 Most Read Article Award of the EMJSR is: Marinos Ioannou for the article: The role of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets for spintronic memory applications and their impact in data storage https://ipipublishing.org/index.php/emjsr/article/view/6 

The selection criterion does not judge the quality of the articles. Instead it reflects the readership and citations attracted.

IPI Talk – Dr. Melvin M. Vopson, University of Portsmouth & Information Physics Institute

Our next IPI Lecture will be on the 21^st of Sept. at 17.00 London time. 

Title: Introducing the Second Law of Infodynamics and its Implications

Abstract: The second law of infodynamics establishes a link between the Shannon’s Information Entropy, the thermodynamic entropy of a system and its time evolution to equilibrium. It states that an isolated system moves to equilibrium in a way that the entropy of its information states decreases, or remains constant at equilibrium. This new law of physics is formulated in analogy to the second law of thermodynamics, which requires the entropy of the physical states to evolve exactly in the opposite direction, increasing or remaining constant over time. In this talk I will detail the research steps taken to formulate this new law, followed by a discussion of its implications to physics, science overall and the universe.

Author: Dr. Melvin M. Vopson

BIO: Dr Melvin Vopson is Associate Professor in Physics at the University of Portsmouth, Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, Chartered Physicist and Fellow of the Institute of Physics. He is the co-founder and CEO of the Information Physics Institute, editor-in-chief of the IPI Letters and Emerging Minds Journal for Student Research. 

Melvin has a wide-ranging scientific expertise in experimental, applied and theoretical physics that is internationally recognized. He has published over 100 research articles, achieving over 3000 citations and an h-index of 27. Melvin worked previously as Higher Research Scientist at the UK National Physical Laboratory, senior R&D at Seagate, postdoctoral researcher at the University of York, and PhD student at the University of Central Lancashire. Melvin obtained his BSc and MSc in Physics at the University of Bucharest. During his MSc studies he was researcher at the National Institute of Materials Physics, Nuclear Gamma Resonance Laboratory.

21^st of Sept. 2024 at 17.00 London time. Online ZOOM lecture - link will be emailed to the IPI members.

Most Read IPI Letters Article Award

Each year IPI Letters offers the Most Read Article Award to the publication that has achieved the largest number of readers. The selection criterion does not judge the quality of the article. Instead it is a reflection of the readership it has attracted.

We are pleased to announce that The Winner of the 2023-2024 Most Read Article Award of the IPI Letters is:  

Olivier Denis for the article:  

 

The entropy of the entangled Hawking radiation https://ipipublishing.org/index.php/ipil/article/view/9 

Olivier's paper received 1857 abstract views and 673 full PDF downloads (up to July 2024).

Next-Generation Blockchain Technology: The Entropic Blockchain

The storage, transmission, and processing of data become significant problems when large digital data files or databases are involved, as in the case of decentralized online global databases such as blockchain. In this article a novel method is proposed that allows for the scalability of digital assets, including blockchain databases in the download, validation, and confidentiality processes, by developing a lightweight blockchain technology called Entropic Blockchain. 

 This is a computer-implemented mathematical method to generate an information-entropic numerical barcode representation of a digital asset. Using this technique, a 1–2 Mb block of digital data can be represented by a few bytes, significantly reducing the size of a blockchain. The entropic barcode file can be utilized on its own or as an optically machine-readable entropic barcode for secure data transmission, processing, labeling, identification, and one-way encryption, as well as for compression, validation, and digital tamper-proof checks. The mathematics of this process and all the steps involved in its implementation are discussed in detail in this article.

The Law of Functional Information

Leading mineralogist Dr. Robert Hazen on the missing law of nature that could explain why life emerges. Credit to: The Well on YouTube: https://bit.ly/welcometothewell

IPI lecture – Dr Michael L. Wong, Carnegie Institution for Science, USA

Our next IPI Lecture will be on Saturday, 6th of July at 16.00 London time. 

Title: An informational perspective of life

Abstract: Information processing is a central feature of life and may be the key to developing bio-signatures that are capable of detecting life as we do not know it. First, I will describe how concepts that we generally associate with the field of data science are strikingly descriptive of the way that life, in general, processes information about its environment. Second, I will explore how the topologies of atmospheric chemical reaction networks of Solar System bodies are distinct from one another, with potential applications to exoplanet bio-signatures. Third, I will show how a robust method that combines pyrolysis–GC–MS measurements of a wide variety of terrestrial and extraterrestrial carbonaceous materials with machine-learning-based classification to achieve ~90% accuracy in the differentiation between samples of abiotic origins vs. biotic specimens. Fourth, I will propose a new time-asymmetric law that states that the functional information of a system will increase over time when subjected to selection for function(s).

Author: Dr. Michael L. Wong

BIO: Dr. Michael L. Wong is an NHFP Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth & Planets Laboratory studying astrobiology and planetary science. In his spare time, he hosts a podcast called Strange New Worlds, which examines science, technology, and culture through the lens of Star Trek.

6th of July at 16.00 London time. Online ZOOM lecture - link will be emailed to the IPI members.

IPI lecture – Dr Szymon Łukaszyk, Łukaszyk Patent Attorneys, Poland

 Our next IPI Lecture will be on Saturday, 25th of May at 16.00 London time. 

Title: Assembly Theory of Bitstrings

Abstract: Bit is the smallest amount and the quantum of information. We used assembly theory to investigate the assembly pathways of binary strings of length N formed by joining bits present in the assembly pool and the bitstrings that entered the pool as a result of previous joining operations. The bitstring assembly index (the smaller amount of steps required to assembly a bitstring of length N) is bounded from below by the shortest addition chain for N. We conjecture about the form of the upper bound. We define the degree of causation for the minimum assembly index that happened to reveal regularities for certain N that can be used to determine the length of the shortest addition chain for N. We explored the idea of assembling bitstrings by other bitstrings (binputation) and it turned that a bitstring with the smallest assembly index for N can be assembled by a binary program of length equal to this index if the length of this bitstring is expressible as a product of Fibonacci numbers. The results confirm that four Planck areas provide a minimum information capacity that corresponds to a minimum thermodynamic (Bekenstein-Hawking) entropy. Knowing that the problem of determining the assembly index is at least NP-complete, we conjecture that this problem is in fact NP-complete, while the problem of creating the bitstring so that it would have a predetermined largest assembly index is NP-hard. The proof of this conjecture would imply P ≠ NP, since every computable problem and every computable solution can be encoded as a finite bitstring. The lower bound on the bitstring assembly index implies a creative path and an optimization path of the evolution of information, where only the latter is available to Turing machines (artificial intelligence). Furthermore, the upper bound hints at the role of dissipative structures and collective, in particular human, intelligence in this evolution.

Author: Dr. Szymon Łukaszyk

 BIO: Szymon Łukaszyk received his M.Eng. degree in the applications of genetic algorithms in mechanics in 1996 and a D.Eng. degree on the Łukaszyk-Karmowski metric and its practical applications in 2004 at the Cracow University of Technology. After completing postgraduate Law on Industrial Property studies at Jagiellonian University, he heads his own patent attorneys’ office. His research interests include emergent dimensionality, entropic gravity, assembly theory, quantum mathematics, and mathematical physics.

25th of May at 16.00 London time. Online ZOOM lecture - link will be emailed to the IPI members.