Hi Jonathan,
I always appreciate that you don't dodge the biggest questions: "Does life descend to play in or with form, bestowing consciousness and creativity? Or does form rise and evolve to acquire these attributes, so it may play in the heavens?"
You allow that science takes the latter course. Things are changing, though -- in complex systems models of laterally integrated information, those upper and lower bounds of agent awareness and action are not so clear. What is becoming clear, through high tech data analysis of interacting systems, is that hubs of activity that control the system's output through negative feedback constantly shift position.* Most remarkably, the most drastic changes are on the shortest intervals of observation, while the system shows little change on the longer scale. Hence, your dance of creation.
"In considering the question 'It from Bit, or Bit from It?' one must always ask 'With respect to what?' The question is undecidable otherwise, as it is essential to understand that entities or systems can have a dual role, and can in fact be a blend of It/Bit flavors ..."
Nice. I am reminded of a recent U.S. president who assigned to himself the role of "decider," in vain. He should have taken a lesson from King Canute, standing in the surf and commanding the ocean waves to roll back. I expect the next chapter of human history will be one of cooperation, the only decision that really needs to be consciously made.
All best,
Tom
*See, e..g., Braha & Bar-Yam, "From Centrality to Temporary Fame: Dynamic Centrality in Complex Networks." Complexity vol 12, no 2, pp 59-63. [2006]