Note: Before reading the following, please see the linked text for how manipulations of the text IT=(BIT, IT) produce a stream of bits.-- e.g., IT=(((((((BIT,(BIT,(BIT,(BIT,(BIT,(BIT,(BIT, IT))))))).
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IT=(BIT, IT) as a way to operationalize John Wheeler's IT FROM BIT feels like a science of simplicity.
IT=(BIT, IT) uses only two "words"-- BIT and IT-- while E=MC(squared) uses three-- "E," "M," and "C." A sign of simpicity?
Perhaps another:
If IT=(BIT, IT) were to become an acceptable model of the Universe, someone in engineering would know immediately that something is missing. Nothing comes for free - every engineering project has a budget, every engine needs fuel. But in this equation for the Universe, a stream of bits seems to come out of nothing.
Engineering would suspect there's an engine, somehow invisible to us, which produces this stream. Further there must be fuel-- again somehow invisible to us-- to feed the engine. And again, by the laws of thermodynamics, there must be an exhaust stream-- again, somehow invisible to us. Because every engine is inefficient and as a result, every engine produces an exhaust stream.
Now replace above phrases like "which is invisble to us" with adjective "dark"--
The engine that drives the stream IT=(BIT, IT) is made of matter. Dark matter.
We call the exhaust stream-- which escapes to expand the Universe-- dark energy.
Take one equation; apply the laws of thermodynamics; its a story of dark matter and energy.
When IT=(BIT, IT) these two enter the picture immediately.