Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Information and the Nature of Reality :
From Physics to Metaphysics.

Paul Davies & N.H. Gregersen, editors (2010)

Anthology of essays on concepts of matter & information in physics, biology, philosophy, and theology
https://www.cambridge.org/

   Post 92. July 25, 2019

  Ultimate Enforming Principle

   The Eternal Enformer

 In the anthology noted on the sidebar, Dr. of Divinity Keith Ward’s essay is entitled : God as the ultimate informational principle. I was somewhat surprised to see a theologian advocating such a non-traditional view of deity. But then, he’s an Anglican, and they tend to be rather liberal in their inter-pretation of scripture and tradition. In fact several of the authors are theologians, who seek to reconcile our current understanding of reality with that of their religion’s holy writ. Ward specializes in comparative theology, among various religious traditions, and also between religion and the secular sciences. A major dispute is that of Matter versus Spirit. The Bible describes God as a “spirit”1, but the modern concept of Energy (a form of information), as an invisible power, was not even a gleam in the eye of the Bronze Age scribes. Never-theless, both Ward and I have used the novel Information Age notion of flowing data bits, pioneered by Claude Shannon, and many quantum physicists, as an analog of those invisible ancient agents known as ghosts & spirits2.

Ward distinguishes three kinds of information, based on their function : Shannon  (computers; quantity rather than quality), Shaping or Coding (matter-forming data such as DNA), and Semantic (content meaningful to minds; qualia). From there, he discusses the abstruse concept of Information as “mathe-matical possibility space”. That’s because the Shannon defin-ition describes information in terms of statistical probability, inter-relationships, and uncertainty or disorder. The Shaping function of information makes things what they are. Ward then introduces the idea of a “Supreme Informational Principle”, which he defines as, “The set of all mathematically possible states . . . plus a selective principle of evaluation . . . would provide the informational code for constructing an actual uni-verse.”3 What he’s describing here is the formula for Evolution : random mutations plus natural selection. Such a system would work like a computer program — random variation (explor-ation) organized by a selection algorithm (IF-THEN) — to produce novel but stable solutions. In effect, the selection principle evaluates & actualizes the potential of certain possi-bilities to create real things. But the obvious question here is, who is the evaluator — the decider-in-chief? In a program, it’s the Programmer. In a cosmos, it’s the Creator.

Because of his profession, I assume that Ward is equating the Prime Programmer with the God of monotheism, whereas mine is the G*D of Panendeism. Anyway, I have a name for that evolutionary principle — equivalent to the Will of G*D — which I call EnFormAction. But he also compares that process with the “Platonic World of Forms”, in the ancient pagan philosophy of Idealism. “Roger Penrose4 has said that the Platonic realm is for him more real than the physical realm. . . . The world of perfect forms is primary  . . . Its existence being almost a logical necessity . . . The world of conscious perceptions and the world of physical reality are its shadows.” Ward goes on to note that “It was Augustine, in the Christian tradition, who formed the elegant postulate that the forms were actually in the mind of God . . .” So, apart from his bias toward the pre-scientific Abrahamic notion of a single supreme king of the world, Ward’s argument is compatible with my own notion of an Ultimate Enforming Principle5.

Post 92 continued . . . click Next             

Ultimate Principle
of Unity
Beyond Duality

1. Spirit :
   Literally, wind or breath. By analogy with the power of invisible wind to move things, spirit is a vital force that animates matter. A more modern term would be Energy.

2. Information as Energy :
   The literal equivalence of physical energy and mental information is still a fringe notion among scientists. But it has many credentialed champions, including Paul Davies, editor of the book noted above. Energy = Information.
   http://blog-glossary/energy.

3. All Possible States :
   The set of all possibilities is what I call BEING or G*D. In the created world, that infinite potential is actualized as EnFormAction, which actualizes possible states into real things.

4. Roger Penrose :
   Mathematical physicist

5. Information Principle :
   Information is constraint on possibilities. Ward’s principle is the evaluator of inform-ation, the one who makes it real and meaningful.
   My enforming principle is called EnFormAction, which is both causative Energy and evaluative Selection. EFA is not god, but the Will of G*D.
   https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/

EnFormAction :

Logos & Spirit

Logos …..pattern               forming
Spirit …….active              principle

En ………..direction,              intention
Form …….meaningful
             pattern
Action ….creative              force