I have read your inspiring essay a couple of times. It really triggered my imagination.
Let's assume that in the very beginning there is only energy, manifested as linear motion of primordial entities of energy at the speed of light. Can such entities be described as bits - mathematical bits as well as bits of energy? If so - what is the least amount of energy necessary to constitute one bit of information/energy?
I have found two alternatives to define this quantity.
One can be found in "Entropy and Information" by Mikhail V. Volkenstein, Abe Shenitzer:
To be able to interact with other bits of information, the thermodynamic equivalent of one bit of information has to be at least:
10ﾂｭ -16 ergs/ﾂｰK
Another value is that of Landauer's principle which relates to bits of information in electronic cicuits. It asserts that there is a minimum possible amount of energy required to erase one bit of information, known as the Landauer limit:
kT ln 2,
where k is the Boltsman constant (approximately 1.38ﾃ--10竏'23 J/K), T is the temperature of the circuit in Kelvins, and ln 2 is the natural logarithm of 2 (approximately 0.69315).
For an environment at temperature T, energy E = ST must be emitted into that environment if the amount of added entropy is S. For a computational operation in which 1 bit of logical information is lost, the amount of entropy generated is at least k ln 2, and so, the energy that must eventually be emitted to the environment is E 竕･ kT ln 2.
To evaluate the two alternatives is beyond my mathematical ability. I can only conclude that the amount of energy required must be very minute.
If one transforms the mass of the earth into bits of energy according to the formula Einstein gave us:
E = mcﾂｲ
one would get un uncomprehensible large number of bits of energy. Given ample space to move freely and randomly they would occupy a space larger than a sphere surrounding the solar system - or even larger.
Doing the same transformation of all the observable mass of our observable universe one will find that the freely and randomly moving bits of energy would occupy the same volume as the observable universe fills today.
How would these freely moving "bits of energy", or why not call them e-bits, behave?
Would they obey quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle?
In that case, assuming a zero entropy condition, in the very beginning each one can be anywhere anytime in the universe, until they begin interacting and thereby participate in the aggregtion process and acquire an increasingly probable position in the universe.
Can these interacting e-bits constitute electrons, quarks, all the elementary particles and the forces that govern their interactions in the same way as these particles of mass and forces are described mathematically by binary expressed algorithms?
These are only a few of all questions and possible scenarios that has come to my mind by the suggestion in your essay that everything we can feel and percieve is expressed as information. However right or wrong my thinking is, I have enjoyed it very much.
one would get un uncomprehensible large number of bits of energy. Given ample space to move freely and randomly they would occupy a space larger than a sphere surrounding the solar system - or even larger.
Doing the same transformation of all the observable mass of our observable universe one will find that the freely and randomly moving bits of energy would occupy the same volume as the observable universe fills today.
How would these freely moving "bits of energy", or why not call them e-bits, behave?
Would they obey quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle?
From to:Loa kﾃｩo
