The Reality Is Information, and You Know It!

This originally started out as a regular response to the Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye debate topic, but has turned into something much larger, as is the case with most things that I write. However, this subject in particular really drew me in, and I wanted to present a much more complete idea for a topic this grand.

Well, I couldn't resist. I had to watch this video, but now I feel like it was just a big waste of time.

I honestly don't know whether to rage or to laugh, but for different reasons than everyone else. Is it just me or is Bill Nye putting out this strange Obama vibe? Oh well, I never liked his shows anyway. I would rather watch the MythBusters any day. As for that Ken Ham guy, he really doesn't deserve any podium next to Bill. No, I take it back. He doesn't even deserve to be part of the audience! What rock has that lunatic been living under? Maybe it was that giant one that materialized over the tree! If you watched this, then you will know exactly what I'm talking about. I find it hard to believe that this guy even believes what he himself is saying. Does he actually preach what he knows to be lies?

Choose your party, all you pathetic sheeple! Do you know what both of these jokers have in common? They both speak to large masses of people, and they both have a political agenda. What was Bill saying about voters and taxes? Did I mention the ties they are wearing? What we have here are a couple of puppet figureheads going head-to-head to help enforce a common agenda on the American sheeple. Doesn't that seem familiar? Have you ever heard of the divide-and-conquer strategy? They seem to be playing their parts well. They also seem to have invoked the usually prescribed evolution vs. intelligent design debate, right on cue. We have to make sure all of those sheeple are distracted from the truth, right? We even have Tom Foreman, that "moderator" guy from CNN, who will make sure that everything goes according to plan. I don't even know what to say...

It's agonizing to see such supposedly genuine things as science and faith being manipulated to support and advertise some underlying political agenda. This debate seems to be reverberating the separation of church and state (which is a great thing), but in a malicious form. It adds just one more nail to the coffin of philosophy, as part of an agenda that would seem to be much older than anyone would expect.


As someone who can understand computer programming, it gives me a different outlook or point of view on life. I'm sure there are many people here at BYOND who can relate to that. The universe (or multiverse) that we live in appears to be composed mostly of information. After all, what separates pure information from something that is "real" or tangible? The answer is nothing! There is no real difference. Everything that you ever believed your entire life has been information that is being constantly processed by your brain (a natural computer). Welcome to the matrix! This entire universe that you can observe through your senses has been an illusion created by your own brain, and no, you cannot prove otherwise. However, both science and religion make the leap of faith to assume that there is something more to reality, and that things composed of information really can and do exist. Other minds really do exist, and can be conscious. This is generally accepted by everyone who ever lived as fact. I am describing a concept known as solipsism.

Now, since we know, or think we know, that other minds exist, we have the ability to communicate what we observe and cross-check things with others, which also happens to lend an infinite amount of evidence towards other minds actually existing. With this ability, we then begin to wonder, and to ask the ultimate question: "Where did we come from?".

Just to reiterate the idea that everything is information, I will now come at the problem from a different angle. Lately, string theorists have found evidence that the universe may be something like a hologram. This is backed up by the latest experiments in quantum superposition and quantum entanglement, which have become a bit more than just theory. At the level of quanta or photons, the reality that we thought we knew so well breaks down. As the speed of light seems to have been "broken" or rendered obsolete by these strange phenomena, and as this potentially brings humanity one step closer to reaching the stars, we may just have to accept the fact that everything is information. After all, there is even more evidence to be found in our blood!

Think of DNA. What is it? How would you summarize it; as deoxyribonucleic acid? No, that's too technical. It has a much deeper meaning. In all honesty, I would define it as a naturally occurring biological data storage device. It also happens to be one of the best known data storage devices in the universe. It has a high capacity, is microscopic in size, is rewritable, and comes with self-replicating features that make it last for millions of years! What man-made devices can do that? Now, here is the crazy part. DNA is the main thing that separates humans, from jellyfish, from dinosaurs. Not counting the cell structures, it separates things as diverse as bacteria, plants, and animals. So in other words, not only is DNA an effective storage device, but also the programming language used to define all sorts of different species and individuals, potentially even on other planets, if life is found out there.

From subjects as diverse as quantum mechanics to genetics, I have presented evidence that reality is composed of information. However, that's only the beginning, and it only gets more strange from here! You think I deny reality? Not a chance, but the powers that be seem to have put society into a state of mind that just won't accept it. Ignorance is what I deny!

Now, if we make the assumption that reality is information, then in order to find the source (is it code?) of reality, we must look for the source of information. Now that might seem like a pretty hard task considering that information is everywhere, but it actually involves a surprisingly simple solution, that is often made obvious by many things around us, such as:

(Note: I do not own any of these images. They are here for strictly educational purposes.)

Trees:

Rivers:

Lightning Bolts:

Evolution of Life:

Evolution of Stars:

Broken Glass:

Internet Connections:

Spiderwebs:

Snowflakes:

Flowers:

Tree Rings:

Seashells:

Hurricanes:

Galaxies:


This is obviously something that you must see in order to properly understand. When you get the chance, stand in front of the nearest mirror, and look very closely into your own eyes. You might be surprised to see a pattern found there as well. As you can see, there are naturally occurring designs and patterns found throughout nature, but what do they all have in common? They all demonstrate a pattern of branching out or radiating from a single source. You might recognize these patterns as fractals, mathematical "monsters" of infinite complexity. In essence, fractals are produced by algorithms involving imaginary and complex numbers. Did I say "imaginary"? Remember how everything is information? This is all too bizarre on so many levels. Some of you may know that fractals are often used in video games now, especially ones with lots of procedurally generated content. By now you should already know why. The game developers are attempting to recreate the functions that reality has already implemented, although many may be unaware of the bigger picture behind it.

What is it that allows us to develop games? What allows you to "Build Your Own Net Dream"? By that I mean what is the underlying mechanism behind it? Well, first you have the virtual machine, which is built from the C language. C was first developed in an assembly language, with inspiration from other languages of near-equal abstraction level. Assembly seems to have evolved out of languages used for complex machines that predate computer systems. In a sense, it's kind of a misconception to call any language a machine language, unless that language was somehow developed entirely by extremely advanced AI. This is because all "machine languages" were created by humans. Ultimately, all programming languages were derived from the same kind of logical syntax found in more "human" spoken or written languages, including number systems especially. There is evidence to suggest that all living things have some form of "language" with which they communicate, and I can believe that. Most notable are the ones that involve the use of an advanced nervous system, like we have. The central nervous system in humans, and most importantly the brain (a natural computer), is what processes all human languages. As an analogy the central processing unit (CPU) in a computer is what processes all machine languages.

Now, is it mere coincidence that a similar process powers both brains and computers? Obviously not! Specifically, I am referring to the controlled transfer of electrons from one spot to another. Notice anything strange here? First I was saying that matter and everything around us is made up of information, and now I'm telling you that information is made up of particles such as electrons. You might be thinking that this is a contradiction, but in reality it isn't. The contradiction is only an illusion imposed by your brain, because things like matter, light, etc., and information or knowledge are one and the same. Did I mention that your brain is shaped just like a fractal? This is incredibly funny and bizarre at the same time. By the way, at this particular level of reality, I should also mention that similar to DNA, the only thing separating an atom of one element from another is some numbers; specifically, the number of particles that make it up. See how we went full circle? This isn't over yet. I still need to finish the singularity!

So far, we can infer that subatomic particles move in nonlinear paths, interacting and resonating throughout the universe to carry information and to produce the complex fractal designs found in nature. You might have thought that the fractals were a totally different subject, but they are not. After all, fractals are simply visual representations of all that information around you. So, what has all of this come down to? Well, we traced the path of the information backwards, towards the source, and what we find is a single small piece of information. I believe it can be summarized by inverting the Latin phrase found on the Great Seal of United States: E Unum Pluribus (out of one, many). It makes much more logical sense to me that way, although it does depend on your perspective. How dare I uncover such arcane, hidden knowledge!

What this all suggests is that everything started out as one thing, and then branched out over time. The evidence is so overwhelming, that you could drown in it, but stay afloat, because just when you thought I had reached the conclusion, I'm about to take this to higher levels! Now, we know that both computers and nervous systems seem to operate through exchanges in electrons, or that particular form of information. First of all, what do you call something that undergoes a complex systematic operation? I think a good word for it is "machine". Under this definition, not only a computer, but in fact our brains, and the rest of us for that matter, would be considered as machines. On a side note, in the digital world, we have functions and procedures, but if we are assuming that all of reality is information, then those are really no different from actual machines. They even operate using them, so they might as well be an extension of them! Try to think of what else might be defined as a machine. Considering that electromagnetism is one of the most powerful forces in the universe, and it seems to have control over almost everything in it, I would have to say that pretty much everything that moves is a machine on some level. While "the only exceptions are currently" gravity, and the strong and weak forces, which may also seem significant, with new theories like quantum gravity being developed, "those will be brought into conformance soon". See what I did there?

So basically, everything is a machine, or a procedure/function, if you want to think of it that way, that is somehow "designed", for lack of a better word, to carry information from one thing to another. Wait, was I just forced to use the word "designed" there? That's interesting. I just said that "everything is a machine", which means that the universe itself, by definition, must also be a machine. Now here's where it gets really interesting. If everything is actually composed of information or knowledge, then it takes away any special meaning that the word "create" might have had. This might mean that anyone can create something just by thinking of it. This might mean that to create and to know are actually synonyms at the deepest levels of reality. After all, if you don't know about something, then it might as well not exist, right? You could infer that while we cannot know everything, everything must be known in order to exist. The truth is, everything carries the knowledge that claims its existence, therefore it is inherently known. Could this mean that everything is somehow conscious? Everything thinks, therefore it is. "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it", it does make a sound, because apparently the tree "heard" itself! Nobody else needs to have anything to do with it, for that to happen. This is getting way too "meta" at this point. Remember quantum superposition and entanglement? Well, the experiments suggest that things somehow "know" if you are observing them. Albert Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance", and I have to agree; it is spooky!

If we now assume that everything is knowledge, and knowledge is a synonym for creation, then everything must therefore be creation. It all comes down to this. Creation is natural and nature is inherently creative. Every single function in the universe involves some form of creating, which just boils down to an exchange of information between one thing and another. "Creationism" does not conflict with evolution, and in fact, the very essence of evolution requires creation. Evolution describes a complex chain of creation. Did I say "chain"? Doesn't a DNA double helix resemble a chain? I would say that everything in the universe exists because of a complex creative chain of "events". However, due to the very nature of these events, wouldn't it all have to start somewhere? We create machines. Our DNA is created through evolution. Some planets, such as the Earth, seem to provide the conditions that could support the creation and evolution of life. Stars support the creation of planets, some of which are Earth-like. Galaxies bring together gas and dust from the vast reaches of the universe, in order to support the creation and evolution of stars, even in an expanding universe. The universe expands, allowing the turbulence of particles to bond them together and create the complex structures that we see today. Furthermore, entire multiverses may have expanded, giving rise to literally uncountable and unmeasurable complex universes that echo the bigger whole throughout the vastness of everything.

It is almost as if someone dropped a rock into into a previously meaningless sea and by the waves that were made, the sea instantly became what it is. Call this an act of creation if you like, but to me it just seems perfectly natural. For me, naturalism and creationism are just two sides of the same coin, and I think I would call that coin "philosophy". These things are inseparable, but the powers that be would like to keep these subjects divided. They wouldn't want a resurgence of the ancient philosophical teachings now would they? Knowledge is a lot like water in how it runs, and certain groups of people have been building a dam from both sides in an attempt to cut philosophy in half. Most choose to stay on either one side or the other, but I'm not afraid to tear down these illusionary ideas, and so I walk the common ground of a lost land that has since been destroyed. Most of the common hive-minded "sheeple" would tell you that philosophy has simply been replaced by science and religion, but that's just not the case. Most knowledge that we obtain comes about by us making connections between existing ideas. That's fundamentally how our brains are wired. When someone tries to stop these connections from happening, it just produces ignorance, and ignorance is worth absolutely nothing. Knowledge is absolutely priceless.

Now excuse me while I imagine that there was a third podium at that debate... Whoever stands there will be attacked from every side. Does philosophy have what it takes to stand up to the divide-and-conquer strategy, a two-front war that nobody would support? In a world this compartmentalized, there may not be a place left for it to stand, but perhaps it will exist for those who understand it.

I hope that you have read through all of this and enjoyed it. I completely understand that it's a lot to take in all at once. Never have I read anything quite like what I have wrote, so I'm guessing most of you won't have either.
The walls have been breached, the singularity has been reached, and it's all clear now!