Researchers: Significance: Around 100 y ago, Szilard imagined how to raise a weight without doing any work, just using the information gained by “looking” at a single gas molecule bouncing inside a box. Here, we designed an engine that stores energy by raising a bead against gravity, driven purely by information about the bead position. No work is done directly on the bead; instead, all dissipation occurs in the measuring apparatus.
Information
Bill Dembski on what John Archibald Wheeler got right and wrong about “it from bit”
Dembski agrees that the universe is, at bottom, information but proposes “informational realism” as a sounder approach to unpacking the idea.
Angus Menuge on the mind–body problem: It’s like developing and then writing down an idea
It would be a very poorly designed system if, every time we wanted to raise our arm, we’d have to know how to adjust each and every molecule in our arm or what specific pattern of nerve signals we would have to send. Well, then we’d be unable to act. And likewise, if what matters is that I don’t stub my toe again, all I’ve got to remember is, don’t push your toe like that rather than worrying about how I did it this time. Because the odds are, I’d never do the same physical movement again.
Chemist James Tour interviews William Dembski May 3, 5:00 pm EST
On information theory, his specialty.
What has information theory to say about talking to spiders?
There’s a way we can do that, provided the spider has anything to say. One of the presentations at the American Chemical Society’s Spring 2021 meeting featured an algorithm that makes music from the analysis of spiders’ webs.
James Tour tackles the origin of information
Also known as the information enigma re the origin of life.
Gregory Chaitin asks, if the universe is information, not matter, does that help explain consciousness?
Chaitin: The normal view if you dabble in metaphysics is that the universe is made from mathematics. That’s a Pythagorean idea, that God is a mathematician. And I prefer to say God is a … a computer programmer or a programmer.
C. Elegans (roundworm) perceives color without eyes
At The Scientist: The new results show that the worms are “actually comparing ratios of wavelengths, and using that information to make decisions,” he says. “And that, I think, was completely surprising and unexpected.” …
How do giant slime molds remember things without a brain or nervous system?
Is it fair to say that not all life forms need a brain or a nervous system but all must have some method of managing (immaterial) information?
Rob Sheldon weighs in on the fundamental building blocks of nature – particles, fields, or …
Sheldon: It is curious that the author of this Aeon article has frozen Wheeler at his second stage, neglecting to mention his final conclusion.
Origin of Life: A review of Paul Davies’ Demon in the Machine
Fernandez: Throughout Demon, Davies injects comments always in support of the Materialistic Darwinist position.
The computer revolution did not show that information could be produced from nothing
Computer engineer Robert J. Marks and colleagues demonstrated that there is still no such thing as a free lunch where information is concerned.
Does communication between predator and prey shape evolution?
Fascinating info about snakes’ warning signals but the author ends up defending dumb Darwinism which, increasingly, complicates explanations. One must come up with a Darwinian explanation for things instead of just reporting and learning from them. Or asking what the information probability is, for this type of change.
How is information present in life?
Marks: For example, if I burn a book to ashes and scatter the ashes around, have I destroyed information? Does it make a difference if there’s another copy of the book?
Sabine Hossenfelder: The black hole information problem is not solvable
Hossenfelder: Today I comment on the recent claim that the black hole information loss problem is “near its end” and explain why this is nonsense.