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allisrelative
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Recent Science headlines are abuzz about a new theory.
Physicists claim information is the fifth state of matter. By 2245, half of Earth’s mass could be converted to digital bits
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/information-fifth-state-matter-0252/
Digital Information Threatens to Consume The Planet's Mass, Physicist Claims
https://www.sciencealert.com/digita...onsume-the-planet-s-mass-physicist-calculates
This is coming from this paper:
The information catastrophe
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0019941
Dr. Vopson from the University of Portsmouth Math and Physics Department talks about a mass-energy-information equivalence. The theory hasn't been tested yet but it has some grounding in Landauer’s principle which points to a connection between thermodynamics and information. Landauer predicted that erasing a bit of information requires a dissipation of energy. It was confirmed in several experiments.
High-precision test of Landauer's principle in a feedback trap
https://arxiv.org/abs/1408.5089
The paper says:
In closing it says something very interesting.
It's a long paper and a good read. Also check out his other paper on mass-energy-information equivalence.
If this is true, it would be very interesting. IBM says we create around 7.3 sextillion bits per year. This is before the internet of things and 5G really takes off.
This would mean we wouldn't have the energy to sustain growth in digital information. He also claims his theory could explain dark matter which in this case would be bits of information mass. Any thoughts on this theory and it's implications?
Physicists claim information is the fifth state of matter. By 2245, half of Earth’s mass could be converted to digital bits
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/information-fifth-state-matter-0252/
Digital Information Threatens to Consume The Planet's Mass, Physicist Claims
https://www.sciencealert.com/digita...onsume-the-planet-s-mass-physicist-calculates
This is coming from this paper:
The information catastrophe
ABSTRACT
Currently, we produce ∼10^21 digital bits of information annually on Earth. Assuming a 20% annual growth rate, we estimate that after ∼350 years from now, the number of bits produced will exceed the number of all atoms on Earth, ∼10^50. After ∼300 years, the power required to sustain this digital production will exceed 18.5 × 10^15 W, i.e., the total planetary power consumption today, and after ∼500 years from now, the digital content will account for more than half Earth’s mass, according to the mass-energy–information equivalence principle. Besides the existing global challenges such as climate, environment, population, food, health, energy, and security, our estimates point to another singular event for our planet, called information catastrophe.
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0019941
Dr. Vopson from the University of Portsmouth Math and Physics Department talks about a mass-energy-information equivalence. The theory hasn't been tested yet but it has some grounding in Landauer’s principle which points to a connection between thermodynamics and information. Landauer predicted that erasing a bit of information requires a dissipation of energy. It was confirmed in several experiments.
High-precision test of Landauer's principle in a feedback trap
We confirm Landauer's 1961 hypothesis that reducing the number of possible macroscopic states in a system by a factor of two requires work of at least kT ln 2. Our experiment uses a colloidal particle in a time-dependent, virtual potential created by a feedback trap to implement Landauer's erasure operation. In a control experiment, similar manipulations that do not reduce the number of system states can be done reversibly. Erasing information thus requires work. In individual cycles, the work to erase can be below the Landauer limit, consistent with the Jarzynski equality.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1408.5089
The paper says:
We now examine this issue considering deeper physical implications. In 2019, the mass–energy–information equivalence principle was formulated,12 stating that information is physical, and it transcends into mass or energy depending on its state. Although this principle still awaits an experimental verification, assuming it is correct, it opens up interesting possibilities with wide ranging implications for computing technologies, physics, and cosmology. The mass–energy–information equivalence principle explains the mechanism by which a classical digital bit of information at equilibrium stores data without energy dissipation, requiring the bit to acquire a mass equal to mbit, while it stores information. Essentially, a bit of information could be seen as an abstract information particle, with no charge, no spin, and rest mass, mbit = (kBT · ln(2))/c2, where kB is the Boltzmann constant, T is the temperature at which the information is stored, and c is the speed of light. In fact, it was proposed that “information” is not only the fifth form of matter along solid, liquid, gas, and plasma but also possibly the dominant form of matter in the universe.12 Although this principle was first formulated in 2019, these ideas are not new. The legendary physicist, John Archibald Wheeler, considered the universe made up of three parts: particles, fields, and information. In fact, Wheeler proposed reformulating the whole physics in terms of the information theory.
In closing it says something very interesting.
In conclusion, we established that the incredible growth of digital information production would reach a singularity point when there are more digital bits created than atoms on the planet. At the same time, the digital information production alone will consume most of the planetary power capacity, leading to ethical and environmental concerns already recognized by Floridi who introduced the concept of “infosphere” and considered challenges posed by our digital information society.27 These issues are valid, regardless of the future developments in data storage technologies. In terms of digital data, the mass–energy–information equivalence principle formulated in 2019 has not yet been verified experimentally, but assuming this is correct, then in not the very distant future, most of the planet’s mass will be made up of bits of information. Applying the law of conservation in conjunction with the mass–energy–information equivalence principle, it means that the mass of the planet is unchanged over time. However, our technological progress inverts radically the distribution of the Earth’s matter from predominantly ordinary matter to the fifth form of digital information matter. In this context, assuming the planetary power limitations are solved, one could envisage a future world mostly computer simulated and dominated by digital bits and computer code.
It's a long paper and a good read. Also check out his other paper on mass-energy-information equivalence.
If this is true, it would be very interesting. IBM says we create around 7.3 sextillion bits per year. This is before the internet of things and 5G really takes off.
This would mean we wouldn't have the energy to sustain growth in digital information. He also claims his theory could explain dark matter which in this case would be bits of information mass. Any thoughts on this theory and it's implications?