Essay Abstract

John Wheeler suggested that information is fundamental to physics, resulting in the very nature of what we observe. However, any information that passes beyond an event horizon becomes empirically lost. What happens to it? Here, I explore the fundamentals of how information is exchanged in reality, how it changes, and any potential for it to be destroyed. Remarkably the Fibonacci sequence, appearing so often in nature, is revealed from this voyage, bringing with it possible answers to Wheeler's question.

Author Bio

Antony Ryan has a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Liverpool. Over the last 6 years he has moved independently into theoretical physics, having developed a fundamental model which addresses the three paradoxes of cosmogony and partly unifies the four forces of nature.

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4 days later

Antony,

Interesting read. Would you mind elaborating a bit on your conclusion. In particular your mention of the Holographic Principle:

"This system also lends itself to a spatially 3-dimensional Universe emerging from 0-dimensionailty, because information exchange is limited to 0, 1, 1, and 2-dimensionailty within a Black Hole, which is hidden from the 3-dimensionality outside. In this respect Black Holes are analogies to the holographic principle in reverse"

Thank You.

    Anthony,

    The real Universe could not have a base 2 system with 0 and 1 at its foundation because the real Universe is unique.

      Hi Joe,

      Thanks for the less personally insulting post to the previous one. Good point to make. Whether the Universe is unique or not, there is nothing to stop it having 0 and 1. Your unique system would surely allow 0 and 1. Both ways would allow higher numbers allowing every point in the Universe to be unique, so there may be some common ground there?

      Best Wishes

      Antony

      Many thanks for reading and taking the time to respond John. I'm glad you found it interesting.

      Rather than information being stored on a 2-dimensional boundary, as per holographic principle, I draw the analogy that Black Hole event horizons are a 2-dimensional boundary where information becomes changed/hidden from the outside 3-dimensionality.

      The Fibonacci sequence gives 3, from 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, with 0, 1, 1, 2, being the Black Hole with 3 the spatial dimensionality outside.

      Let me know if you'd like me to elaborate.

      Best Wishes

      Antony

      Hello Antony

      I have read your essay with interest. When Fibonacci discovered his series he had little idea of its amazing and wide applications in other branches of mathematics, in describing some geometrical patterns in nature and as you describe, in theoretical physics.

      Your approach makes sense if you posit a granular vacuum in which each granule communicates with adjacent ones. The pattern spreads accumulating new granules step by step in a linear, causal logical and easily pictured way. In the discussion on probability in my Beautiful Universe Theory I have shown how this leads to explaining quantum probability - not from a vacuum chaos but from exquisite order, such as a binomial distribution in a lattice. This is very similar to Pascal's triangle, hence to Fibonacci.

      I am no expert on entropy or black holes, but feel you might be onto an interesting line for further study and development.

      With best wishes

      Vladimir

        Anthony,

        I deeply regret the first comment and I am glad it was removed. Both of the supposedly whole postulated numbers 0 and 1 are formed by a single line. Computers using Boolean algebra represent the physical values of the 0 and the 1 as being identical to a switch (or an electro-magnetic impulse) having the capability of being off for 0, and on for 1. But there is a huge problem. Although abstract 0 and 1 are perfectly formed and ever unchangeable, real switches or real electromagnetic impulses are not so formed. Physically, a real switch can malfunction. It can remain on when it is indicated to be off, or remain off when it might be perceived to be on.

        I think an assigned -1 representing the probability of false positive/negative indications has to be considered for all computations. The insertion of the -1 would of course always have to be uniquely random.

        Anthony, it's always good to see an essay that uses a bit of number theory. Number theory is the other thing I sometimes do some work on apart from physics. I was especially chuffed one time when a paper I wrote on number theory was cited by a physicist. The connections run deep and Fibonacci numbers often come up in such links. I think you are very right that they are important to nature.

          It will take me until the weekend to seriously read essays.I did though read the first couple of pages of your paper. I presume that you are proposing an unfolding of spaces of various dimensions according to the Fibonacci sequence.

          The icosian or 120-cell has two quaternions with length (1/2)(1 +/- sqrt{5}) where the plus one has length 1.618..., which is the golden mean. In fact these quaternions define something called the golden field in a Galois ring. This is related to the Fibonacci sequence.

          Cheers LC

            5 days later

            Hello Vladimir,

            Thank you for your kind comments. My own geometric theory is similar to Causal Dynamical Triangulation, so what you say about granular adjacent space makes very good sense. I look forward to reading your theory, as the approach you describe sounds favourable to an early ordered Universe.

            Best wishes

            Antony

            Hi Philip,

            Thanks for the reading and the comments. The occurrences in nature of Fibonacci are incredible alone. What strikes me as beautiful is the very symmetric asymmetry that the sequence gives naturally when passing downwards past 0.

            I'm using n-dimension simplex vertex numbers (a mouthful I know), to represent order. This apples more in my cosmogony theory. However, this would then produce an arrow of time.

            In the context of this essay contest though, information should naturally become more chaotically scrambled over time - especially when dimensionality changes from 3 to 0 at a Black Hole - akin to the Fibonacci sequence.

            Kind regards

            Antony

            Lawrence, thanks for finding the time to read my essay.

            What you suggest is another way to look at this. I will find it very helpful to future study on this subject.

            I envisaged the sequence crossing from normal space into a Black Hole as purely the change in the way information is processed dimensionally, which always seems unidirectional with time. Perhaps what you have mentioned is the other side of the same coin.

            Cheers,

            Antony

            Hello Joe,

            Fibonacci indeed has -1 in the sequence (-1, 1, 0, 1, 1). I speculate this to allow for Hawking Radiation to let Black oles lose mass.

            Best Wishes

            Antony

            I was asked to comment on this essay. I am an informatics and software engineer by education and trade so this is outside of my normal scope of interest. With that said I think it was well written and your theory well stated. I am reminded of the solutions to AIDS protein configurations that were solved by the social gaming platform fold.it. I bring this up as it reinforces the theory that the universe doesn't do things on a whim. The protein uses as little energy as possible to exist and I believe that is a possible law of the universe. Your correlation to possibility of preserving information and mathematical balance only makes sense as why destroy the information? If this universe is trying to go back to zero then it would need a mechanism to do that and that mechanism would be as efficient as possible. Each of your possible "strangely diverse quantum like results" seem to each attempt a balance.

            Again, this may be complete rubbish and below what you are used to. I wish you the best of luck.

              Many thanks for taking the time to read and comment on this Kenneth.

              I am glad to see that my essay brought to mind other interesting instances where the Universe behaves in this way. I'm delighted that you noticed the symmetrically balanced way information is treated here. The Fibonacci sequence certainly seems to be followed empirically and it is driven by entropy without destroying information.

              Again thank you for your thoughtful, kind and well considered comments.

              Best wishes,

              Antony

              Hi Antony,

              Thanks for your comments over at my paper. I agree that our viewpoints are compatible, though each of us does have a somewhat different focus. I also found your paper very interesting and well-written.

              I'm intrigued by the relation between your account and Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDTs), which you mentioned above in the comments. Lately, Ambjorn and his co-workers have been connecting CDTs with Horava-Lifshitz gravity, which interests me because of the existence of a preferred frame in the latter, such a frame being consistent with the kind of large-scale nonlocality that I describe. (Indeed, Niayesh Afshordi has argued that something like his gravitational aether can be viewed as the low-energy limit of Horava-Lifshitz gravity.) This aspect of CDTs may be worth exploring as you develop your ideas further.

              At any rate, good luck to you in the contest!

              -Willard

              Willard - thank you for your kind post and comments. I know a little about Ambjorn and Loll's work but not Horava-Lifshitz gravity. That's great to hear about. I will study it further and get back to you.

              My reference to CDT is from my geometric theory which led me to Fibonacci behaviour around Black Holes.

              Luckily it sits well with information's relationship with reality and Black Holes being a potential "enemy" of information - hence the timing of me discovering the relation - March this year, was good.

              I wasn't sure whether to include the entropy discussion as that could have been a paper on its own. Although relevant, I hope it wasn't too distracting from the main point around Fibonacci's relationship with Bit and It?

              Anyway nice to "meet" you and all the best with the contest.

              Antony

              Dear Antony

              Very attractive when you compare with the story of "chicken and egg" because I also used to think like that, but I found a different result - more precisely.

              http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1802

                Thanks for looking at my essay. I'm glad that your appreciated the chicken and egg conclusion. Perhaps I'd consider Bit and It as two sides of the same coin a stronger position than not deciding which came first.

                I've now read your essay and think that you might say that a God was Bit leading to reality?

                Anyway best wishes,

                Antony