• “Broad” as distinguished between “narrow” Information Theory, a sub-field of physics that deals with questions of information transmission and entropy
• “Broad Information Theory (BIT)” presents a comprehensive view of how information is organized in systems, both physical and virtual, across many levels from the tiny to the giant, and how those systems interact with each other
• Fundamental theses:
  • Across different domains of human knowledge, systems can be described as an architecture of their fundamental elements and the interactions between them
  • Informational patterns in a domain are evolved through competitive selection pressure to meet underlying needs in the environment.
    • When an informational pattern appears across unrelated domains, those domains may have similar underlying informational needs
  • The idea that a pattern represents a general solution to defined needs can be tested by building computational game-simulation models
• BIT explores domains to discover viewpoints and analytical tools and uses them to synthesizes a coherent information-theoretical view across domains.
  • Synthetic field
  • Ex. Behavioral economics
• Domains to be discussed include:
  • Physics (computational view of the universe)
  • Biology (microbiology/immune system, organ interaction)
  • Ecology (ecosystems, populations)
  • Sociology (competing ideologies)
  • Psychology (organization of information in human brain, heuristics, human free will)
  • Artificial Intelligence (organization of information in artificial neural networks)
  • Theology (religions as operating systems, role of divinity through information theoretical lens)
• About me:
  • Most importantly: I’m an expert generalist
  • Undergraduate degree in Physics w/ High Distinction
  • Accepted into Ohio State University PhD Physics program on a National Needs scholarship – left early
  • Have worked as software engineer, software architect, data scientist
  • Other fields: biology, history, law, investing, planning process (Agile/Scrum), organizational change, cognitive science/psychology, writing, music, self-defense, education
  • Experience: became fluent in Spanish, lived overseas
• Analytical frameworks:
  • Scientific method
    • Method for falsifying models (against experiment, i.e. “the razor of reality”)
  • Critical thinking
    • Structured logical reasoning
  • Critical theory
    • Subjectivist sociological framework
    • Asserts that there is no better or worse analytical viewpoint (relativist)
    • Views the individual as the intersection of overlaid identities (intersectional)
  • The razor of reality
    • Objectivism
• Concepts from Mathematics and Machine Learning
  • Finding minimum/maximum
  • Non-convex functions (almost all interesting problems)

Requisite basics:

• Science
  • A structured process for reducing error
  • Science does not deliver truth. It falsifies untruth, as measured by experiment against the observable universe (the “razor of reality”)
  • “Scientific method” – a procedure for constructing theoretical models and falsifying those that can be falsified
    • Observe
    • Hypothesize
    • Construct and conduct experiments to falsify the hypothesis
    • Repeat
    • Publication, peer review, and criticism are means of sourcing collective intelligence to better hypothesize and falsify hypotheses
  • All observations – and thus all theories – have inherent limits
  • Scientists do not “prove” things. We find regions of measurable parameters within which we cannot disprove them.
    • Mathematics proves things
  • As distinct from: “scientism”
    • Religion masquerading in the trappings of science
    • Typically involves deferral to “experts”, credentials as a stand-in for data
    • “Trust the science” ← inherently unscientific phrase
    • “In God we trust. All others bring data” – W. Edwards Demming
• Computation
  • A physical implementation of operator mathematics
    • State: a number or, more generally, a function describing something
      • Why a function?
      • Any function can be approximated as a sum of other more limited functions
        • Taylor expansion
        • Finite element method
      • Lowest-degree expansion of a function is a 0 degree polynomial – i.e. a number
      • You can think of digitization as an expansion of a continuous to regions so small that a 0 degree polynomial (ex. Number) in each region represents the function’s output
        • Example: digital photograph
    • Operators: transform state into new state
      • I put an apple into the food processor, transforming the apple to applesauce
      • I can apply a sequence of actions (i.e. kitchen food preparation process, manufacturing process); we can think of this as a sequence of operator

References:

1. How We Came to Know the Cosmos, Dr. Helen Klus, http://www.thestargarden.co.uk/Atoms-and-waves.html
2. The Universe as a Computer, JH Wierenga, https://quantumoccam.net/explanations/the-universe-as-a-quantum-computer
3. The Universe as a Computer, Mike James, https://www.i-programmer.info/babbages-bag/356-universe-as-computer.html (re-read)