IPI lectures

IPI lecture, 30 Nov. 2024 - Daniel Boyd

Information/Physics from the perspective of Emergent Information Theory 

Throughout the history of humanity much attention has been paid to the remarkable characteristics of the human mind or soul, how these differ from those of the material world, and the relationship between the two. Emergent Information Theory claims that this riddle, as formulated in Chalmers’ Hard Problem, is far bigger; that it includes all biological and technological systems with informational functions. It proposes a form of naturalistic substance dualism in which these systems create a dimension outside of the physical realm in which this substance exists and the strongly emergent processes underlying these functions take place according to their own natural laws. This information dimension is home to everything from lofty phenomenal consciousness to the lowly binary value associated with a bit state. In this talk I will present the rationale and evidence for this conclusion, and invite my audience to engage in discussion about its strengths and weaknesses.    

Speaker: Daniel Boyd, International Society for the Study of Information, Netherlands.

IPI lecture, 9 Nov. 2024 - Thomas Bradley

The Laws of Physics Embodied by Fundamental Replicators: Exploring Femes

The fine-tuning problem addresses the arbitrary form of physical laws within an immense combinatorial space of possibilities, leaving the specific form of the laws unexplained. While evolution accounts for the consistent form of DNA, we propose that other abstract replicators—the ‘femes’—are responsible for the transformations described by the laws of physics. This talk will delve into the concept of femes and how the conjecture of their existence extends directly from constructor theory, information theory, and universal Darwinism. We then describe their role in shaping physical laws, present five falsifiable predictions from this conjecture, and discuss the implications for our understanding of the second law of infodynamics.   

Speaker: Thomas Bradley, Clann Ltd. UK.

IPI lecture, Sept. 2024 - Melvin M. Vopson

Introducing the Second Law of Infodynamics and its Implications

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.  

Speaker: Dr. Melvin M. Vopson, University of Portsmouth and Information Physics Institute.

IPI lecture, July 2024 - Michael L. Wong.

An informational perspective of life  

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).  

Speaker: Dr. Michael L. Wong, NHFP Sagan Fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth & Planets Laboratory.

IPI lecture, May 2024 - Szymon Łukaszyk.

Assembly Theory of Bitstrings 

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 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. Furthermore, the upper bound hints at the role of dissipative structures and collective, in particular human, intelligence in this evolution. 

Speaker: Dr. Szymon Łukaszyk, Łukaszyk Patent Attorneys.

IPI lecture, Feb. 2024 - Emily Adlam.

Are Entropy Bounds Epistemic? 

Entropy bounds have played an important role in the development of holography as an approach to quantum gravity. In this talk I will introduce the strong and covariant entropy bounds, and then discuss how the covariant bound should be interpreted. I will argue that there is a possible way of thinking about the covariant entropy bound which would suggest that it encodes an epistemic limitation rather than an objective count of the true number of degrees of freedom on a light-sheet; thus I will distinguish between ontological and epistemic interpretations of the covariant bound. I will consider the consequences that these interpretations might have for physics and discuss what each approach has to say about gravitational phenomena. My aim is not to advocate for either the ontological or epistemic approach in particular, but rather to articulate both possibilities clearly and explore some arguments for and against them. 

Speaker: Dr. Emily Adlam, Chapman University.

IPI lecture, Dec. 2023 - Donatello Dolce.

On the Cyclic Nature of Time and the Consequent Exact Derivation of Quantum Mechanics from Classical-Relativistic Physics 

We have proven, with mathematical certainty and in several independent ways, the exact equivalence between the classical statistical description of ultra-fast harmonic dynamics and quantum mechanics. The equivalence has been rigorously confirmed in: canonical quantization, Feynman quantization, second quantization, and successfully verified for non-trivial quantum phenomena of condensed matter and high energy physics. The non-trivial topology of the theory has revealed a further remarkable result: the principle of relativistic covariance directly yields gauge interaction, without postulating gauge invariance, as much as gravitational interaction. All these independent results constitute an abundant amount of unequivocal evidence to postulate the intrinsic periodicity of elementary systems as the fundamental classical principle at the base of quantum mechanics. That is, the whole plethora of quantum phenomena turns out to be fully conciliated, in a fully unified description, with the principle of classical-relativistic physics, provided the introduction of a cyclic nature for the relativistic time. 

Speaker: Prof. Donatello Dolce, University of Camerino.

IPI lecture, Sept. 2023 - Andrei Khrennikov.

Modelling social lasing by using the mathematical formalism of quantum theory 

Social phenomena can be modelled on the basis of the recently developed social laser theory. This theory can be used to model stimulated amplification of coherent social actions. ``Actions” are treated very generally, from mass protests to votes and other collective decisions, as, e.g., acceptance (often unconscious) of some societal recommendations. 

Speaker: Prof. Andrei Khrennikov, Linnaeus University.

IPI lecture, May 2023 - Bormashenko Edward.

Fibonacci Sequences, Symmetry and Order in Biological Patterns, Their Sources, Information Origin and the Landauer Principle 

Physical, informational roots, exemplifications and consequences of periodic and aperiodic ordering (represented by Fibonacci series) in biological systems are discussed. The physical, informational and biological roots and role of symmetry and asymmetry appearing in biological patterns are addressed. The “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches to the explanation of symmetry in organisms are presented and discussed in detail. The “top-down” approach implies that the symmetry of the biological structure follows the symmetry of the media in which this structure is functioning; the “bottom-up” approach, in turn, accepts that the symmetry of biological structures emerges from the symmetry of molecules constituting the structure. Informational/algorithmic roots of order inherent in the biological systems are considered. The application of the Landauer principle bridging physics and theory of information to the biological systems is discussed. 

Speaker: Prof. Bormashenko Edward, Ariel University.

IPI Easter lecture 2023 - Vitaly Vanchurin.

Neuromorphic Computing: from theory to practice

There are billions of organisms on Earth, that came into existence via biological evolution. For all practical purposes these organisms can be considered as computers, but what is exactly their architecture? Do they have the classical von Neumann architecture or is there something else that we can identify and, perhaps, use for developing better computers? Do they use quantum effects or quantum computation, or all such effects are irrelevant for computations performed on the macroscopic scales of individual organisms? In this talk, Prof. Vitaly Vanchurin explains the recent theoretical advances in physics, biology and machine learning that could lead to the development of a new generation of neuromorphic computers.  

Speaker: Dr. Vitaly Vanchurin, Founder & CEO at Artificial Neural Computing.

IPI spring lecture 2023 - Trevor Page.

Beyond the veil of common sense - A logical view of nature 

A simple deduced model of common sense and the process of “making sense” is presented. Several examples of irrationality due to common sense bias are identified within the fields of mathematics, science, philosophy, and religion. A series of logical proofs for the origin of the universe and its fundamental quantum nature are delivered. Preliminary expressions of the universe are developed (relative expressions of |1|), revealing what are purported to be the foundational quantum informational structures of nature. These structures, of which there are apparently 72! instances, are presumed to underpin and support the standard model, either as it currently stands, or at least future revisions of it. 

Speaker: Trevor Page, Research Fellow of the Information Physics Institute.

IPI Christmas lecture 2022 - Doug Matzke

Bit-Physics: How to bootstrap the universe using topological bits 

The key to understanding bit-physics are the twin concepts: 1) "bits are physical" (Landauer's principle) thus effecting the physical universe; 2) "bits are protophysical" (Matzke's principle), which means that the topological mathematics supporting hyperdimensional bits is fundamental to the structure of the multiverse.

Speaker: Dr Doug Matzke, a.k.a. Quantum Doug. 

www.QuantumDoug.com