Hi Edwin !! Thank you so much for your help & coaching !!
In the closing moments of this most auspicious event I feel driven to add the following remarks :-
Some of the positive-rate-worthy features of my essay are the following:
(1) I provide a clear & easily understood definition of information, which is that it is the full set of real, not abstract nor hypothetical, geometrical objects present here in our universe;
(2) These (real) geometrical objects are properly observable - that is to say, easily observed, measured, quantified & verified - phenomena, therefore my hypothesis is a readily testable one. Even a well informed (sic) 8 year old child could verify it.
I demonstrate how these entities can be observed - measured, quantified, verified.
(3) As David Deutsch puts it, 'information' is 'something' that can be transferred from medium, to medium, to medium & yet remain unchanged - see quote in my essay. One of many proofs of my hypothesis - that information is geometrical objects - I provide is that these entities are not only 'something' that can be transferred from medium to medium in this fashion, but are the only things which can be so transferred.
(4) Underneath its meaning each of our own human-made units of information - all of our own signs, codes, symbols, words, letters & languages - is a geometrical object plain & simple, or an assembly thereof. Which fact proves that geometrical objects are capable of carrying units of information on their backs. Literally.
(5) Each of the many & various left-over scratches, scars, dents, bump-marks, vibrations & residues still remaining on previously impacted solid bodies present here in our universe, is one naturally-occurring geometrical object. It is useful to designate all of these left-over bump-marks as belonging to the class of 'secondary geometrical objects'. (I itemize some of the other classes in my essay.)
Examples of this class of secondary geometrical objects are : craters on the Moon, ripples in a pond, heat in a sun-warmed rock, vibrations in the air emanating from a bumped hollow log. And the biggest - & longest-lasting - bump-mark of all has to be the Big Bang ripples still remaining in the MWBR.
No great difficulty attends the task of recognising that each & every one of these simple geometrical objects (all of these shapes), 'carries' some information on its back - each literally 'tells' 'a story' - a 'tale' not only concerning the identity of the solid object which created it, but where, when & from which direction the creating solid object approached the impacted one & how fast etc.
Which set of easily observed facts proves that - & just as do all of our own human-made signs & symbols carry information on their backs, so also do all of the naturally-occurring geometrical objects out there in the wild too.
To sum : every unit of (recognised) information 'sits' on top of some one or another or ensemble of, geometrical object/s; & on each & every geometrical object here in our universe - human-made or naturally occurring - there 'rides' some one or another particular meaning - some one or another item of information.
Thus do geometrical objects reveal themselves to be 'dual-purpose' entities.
(6) Observation of the manner in which geometrical objects are USED within our cosmos quickly apprises one of the fact that they are not only used to guide & direct the active responses solid objects mount towards each other during contact events with one another, but are so used in this fashion by every solid object every time it interacts with another solid body.
This conclusion obtains due to the fact that attendant on any impact/contact event occurring here in our cosmos, the bodily SHAPES (the geometricities) of the participants involved always play a critically-determining albeit not sufficient, role in the outcome of that impact/contact event.
This observation regarding the universality of the manner in which geometrical objects are USED within our cosmos - as guides for action - provides a definition of 'thinking' which is 'using information to guide & direct action'; or in its long form - 'thinking' is 'using information (which always exists as some one, another or assembly of geometrical objects) to guide & direct action, such action as taken by some properly thinking/acting agent specifically in regard to whatever object/s &/or event/s the information being so used, concerns'.
(7) It is imperative as to any good & proper understanding of all of these information-related phenomena that it be recognised that it - information - is NEVER the active agent of any of the actions occurring in regard to any of it; that the active, powerful - & even thoughtfully intelligent (see below) - agent of all action here in our universe is matter - 'hard, solid matter'.
Although we ourselves use a very great deal more information (more geometrical objects) to guide & direct our actions - that is 'think' - & although we ourselves use a very much more varied kind or grades thereof - all as gathered by our senses, then massively processed & collated by our brains, nevertheless we are 'only' doing exactly what the rocks & stones beneath our feet & the atoms & molecules in the air accomplish at all times & under all circumstances - that is to say, each uses information to guide & direct its every interactive encounter with whatever other solid body it encounters during its existential history here in our cosmos.
(8) So then, this observation regarding the universality of the manner in which geometrical objects are USED within our cosmos - to guide & direct action - apprises us of the fact that 'thought' - as the use of information-as-geometrical-objects to guide action - is an innate capacity of solid matter & occurs ubiquitously here & on the most routine of bases, no less than each time any two solid objects interact with one another.
As such 'thought' is no longer a mysterious phenomenon, indeed, can be readily seen to be a 'perfectly natural' one - one which in no way requires either magic or miracles to execute it - it massively narrows 'the gap' - aka as 'the God gap'.
And although knowing all this about information & all information-related phenomena unveils (elucidates) any number of presently highly mysterious phenomena, this knowledge does not illuminate any of the so-called first & final causes - including why matter was made in such a manner making 'thought' an innate capacity thereof. And this lack of knowledge as to all & any first & final causes in spite of the fact that coming to this understanding that everything thinks - some just at a 'higher' level than others - does verily indeed narrow the so-called 'God Gap' as it pertains to all inside phenomenon.
(9) The fact that geometrical objects are observable entities allows their involvement with, or their passage through the thinking-machinery of, any properly thinking entity to be ascertained.
(10) Performing this particular 'tracing' exercise as to our own thinking process, with no great difficulty not only allows us to identify & define all thinking related phenomena such as thought, mind & consciousness, it also apprises us of the exact location of where our own most valued cognitive self-conscious awareness resides.
As there exists at this location 'only' a little bit of water - more usually designated 'interstitial fluid' - this discovery strongly compels the conclusion that we live in a panpsychic universe, that is to say, one in which 'knowingness' exists at the pen-ultimate quintessence of matter (at the quantum level ?), for, nothing other than its location marks out this small amount of interstitial fluid as being special in any way.
Moreover & due entirely to its location, it is the only thing here in our universe privy to each & every one of our own conscious thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions & imaginings.
(11) Observation of our own thinking process quickly alerts one to the fact that it - our own thinking process - is NOT digital, but wholly analogue; the thinking machinery of all higher (animal) thinkers - which thinking machinery includes all sensory equipment as well as all motor machinery & not just the assembly lines central processor - handles all of the information it does so handle in analogue format - specifically in individual geometrical objects or ensembles thereof .
I provide several more proofs that geometrical objects are information in my essay & again I here point out that these proofs - unlike any leveled at such difficult if not impossible to observe quantum phenomena - are easily recognised to be what they are - confirmations of my principle claims on information's behalf.
(12) These determinations rather unproblematically allow an understanding of, by any sufficiently careful (& objective) investigator, any number of information-related phenomena, one of which is the fact that 'thinking' is a completely different phenomenon from 'computing'. Digits are quite suitable entities with which to compute - to count, calculate & compute, but are not at all suitable for real thinking - for the latter, information in the form of geometrical objects alone suffices. The particular devices which perform each of these different tasks are also very different.
As surprising as it may seem, thinking machines (even our own), which phenomena being thinking machines obligately operate analogue-ly with geometrical objects as their 'fodder', are not, in & of themselves in any sense intelligent. Only the user/owner/operator of any such device can possess this particular quality.
'Intelligence' is 'using the available information in existentially efficacious ways; intelligence increases as the kind & amount of available information increases & also as to the efficacy to which that information it utilised'.
(13) Although thinking machines (& straight-thinking rocks & stones, which do not need specially-built add-on machines to enable them to think) are different from computing devices, nevertheless some 'overlaps' exist. 'Specially-built thinking machines such as our own, do verily indeed 'process' the information being 'shunted' through them. But 'processing' only means 'sorting'; it does not mean 'executing algorithmic contortions on whatever is being processed/sorted - which latter is something computing devices do very well.
That being said probably all specially built thinking machines also count, calculate & compute as to some but only some, of the operations they perform on whatever is passing through them - digits &/or geometrical (analogue) entities.
As false modesty has never been a vice of mine, I un-ashamedly hope that my essay receives high ratings all round. But with apologies . ... .. & the very best regards to all
Margriet O'Regan.
