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III. Ecosmos: A Revolutionary Fertile, Habitable, Solar-Bioplanet, Incubator Lifescape

1. A CoCreative Participatory UniVerse

Chiribella, Giulio and Robert Spekkens, eds. Quantum Theory: Information Foundations and Foils. Dordrecht: Springer, 2015. University of Hong Kong and Perimeter Institute, Canada physicists edit a significant volume to begin to gather, recognize and establish a 21st century revolutionary about this deepest realm. Typical chapters are Optimal Information Transfer and Real-Vector-Space Quantum Theory by William Wooters, Information Theoretic Postulates for Quantum by Markus Muller, et al, and Reconstructing Quantum Theory by Lucien Hardy. As this section, Quantum Complex Systems, Information Computation Turn, and elsewhere report, an intrinsic physical nature is gaining a new generative dimension and source by way of a dynamic informative content. See also Quantum Theory from First Principles: An Informational Approach (Cambridge, 2017) edited by GC and others.

This book provides the first unified overview of the burgeoning research area at the interface between Quantum Foundations and Quantum Information. Topics include: operational alternatives to quantum theory, information-theoretic reconstructions of the quantum formalism, mathematical frameworks for operational theories, and device-independent features of the set of quantum correlations. Powered by the injection of fresh ideas from the field of Quantum Information and Computation, the foundations of Quantum Mechanics are in the midst of a renaissance. The last two decades have seen an explosion of new results and research directions, attracting broad interest in the scientific community. The variety and number of different approaches, however, makes it challenging for a newcomer to obtain a big picture of the field and of its high-level goals. Here, fourteen original contributions from leading experts in the field cover some of the most promising research directions that have emerged in the new wave of quantum foundations.

Chiribella, Giulio, et al. Informational Derivation of Quantum Theory. Physical Review A. 84/012311, 2011. In an extensive technical paper that has gained notice and peer approval, e.g. Science News for August 13, 2011, Perimeter Institute physicists proceed to explain the quantum realm as guided by and based upon this innate quality. With other recent additions to this section, such as Vlatko Verdal, ought we realize an historic discovery that natural, material reality, of which quantum phenomena are an iconic measure, as tradition knows, is actually a literal, poetic, essential script? By so doing, as SN editor Tom Siegfried, and the authors note, John Archibald Wheeler’s mantra of “it from bit” gains a 21st century verification. And in this case and model are we the “it” selves who are, by virtue of our observation, to choose and activate the cosmos?

In this paper we provide a complete derivation of finite dimensional quantum theory based on purely operational principles. More specifically, our principles are of informational nature: they assert basic properties of information processing, such as the possibility or impossibility to carry out certain tasks by manipulating physical systems. In this approach the rules by which information can be processed determine the physical theory, in accordance with Wheeler’s program “it from bit,” for which he argued that “all things physical are information-theoretic in origin.”

Chiribella, Giulio, et al. Quantum Theory, Namely the Pure and Reversible Theory of Information. Entropy. 14/11, 2012. Also cited in Information-Computation, Chiribella, now Center for Quantum Information, Tsinghua University, with Giacomo D’Ariano and Paolo Perinotti, University of Pavia, join a chorus of physicists who call for a revised “more fundamental understanding” of their field in terms of growing evidence for a natural programmic basis. As often in this regard, a reference is made to John Archibald Wheeler’s digital “It from Bit” of a self-observing, self-acknowledging, participatory cosmos. And we note here, as this entry is logged in along with Goyal, Zenil, et al, Dodig Crnkovic and Giovagnoli, and other papers, as natural philosophy they could be seen as describing, in contrast to a waning string multiverse, a profoundly vital, self-creating reality by virtue of an ascendant genetic-like guidance.

Clifton, Rob, et al. Characterizing Quantum Theory in Terms of Information-Theoretic Constraints. Foundations of Physics. 33/11, 2003. To correct deficiencies in 20th century quantum physics, and to implement the waxing appreciation of “It from Bit” insights of John Archibald Wheeler, a new formulation by the late Rob Clifton, Jeffery Bub and Hans Halvorson (CBH) is proposed which expresses an informational essence. To also accord with Einstein’s views, rather than a “constructive” method which represents complex phenomena out of simple elements, this approach is a “principle” theory based on intrinsic mathematical qualities.

We therefore suggest substituting for the conceptually problematic mechanical perspective on quantum theory an information-theoretic perspective. That is, we are suggesting that quantum theory be viewed, not as first and foremost a mechanical theory of waves and particles, but as a theory about the possibilities and impossibilities of information transfer. (1563)

Correia, Adriana, et al. Putting a Spin on Language: A Quantum Interpretation of Unary Connectives for Linguistic Applications. arXiv:2004.04128. We cite this entry by Utrecht University computational physicists including Michael Moortgat as an example of further insights into nature’s deepest textual character. See also Functional Evolution of Quantum Fields by Stefano Gogioso, et al at 2003.13271.

Extended versions of the Lambek Calculus used in computational linguistics rely on unary modalities for controlled applications of rules affecting word order and phrase structure. Our aim is to turn the modalities into first-class citizens of the vectorial interpretation. Building on our density matrix semantics, we extend the type system with an extra spin density matrix space. Our method introduces a way of simultaneously representing co-existing interpretations of ambiguous utterances, and provides a uniform framework for the integration of lexical and derivational ambiguity. (Abstract excerpt)

Unary means a mathematical operation consisting of or involving a single component or element.

D’Ariano, Giacomo. A Quantum-Digital Universe. http://fqxi.org/community/essay/winners/2011.1. As the University of Pavia information physicist’s essay for the Foundational Questions Institute 2011 query “Is Reality Digital or Analog?” All eighteen winning entries are available at this site, see Dean Rickles below. We note as a contribution to the Leibniz-Turing-Wheeler turn, a waxing parallel option to a hoary, one dimensional, string multiverse. But such attempts at expressing a kind of dual soft code and hard creation are burdened by terminologies and paradigms, however might a cosmos to children genetic gestation dawn? See also D’Ariano’s paper “Physics as Quantum Information Processing” available at arXiv.

Can Reality be simulated by a huge Quantum Computer? Do we believe that Reality is made of something more than interacting quantum systems? The idea that the whole Physics is ultimately a quantum computation - a strong quantum version of the Church- Turing hypothesis well synthesized by the Wheeler's coinage It from Bit is very appealing. It is theoretically very parsimonious: an Occam razor's quality-guaranteed description of the world. But, if this is the case, then we need to understand the entire Physics as emergent from the quantum computation. (Abstract)

D’Ariano, Giacomo and Andrei Khrennikov. Preface of the Special Issue: Quantum Foundations information Approach. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. 374/2068, 2016. University of Pavia, Italy, and Linnaeus University, Sweden physicists introduce and situate this ongoing 21st century revolution. This piece and the technical papers provide leads to more sources, such as in the Foundations of Physics journal for 2015.

D’Ariano, Giacomo, et al. Quantum Theory from First Principles: An Informational Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. DiAriano and Paolo Perinotti, University of Pavia, and Giulio Chiribella, University of Hong Kong write an intricately technical textbook of this 2000s and 2010s revolutionary conception of nature’s foundational source.

Quantum theory is the soul of theoretical physics. It is not just a theory of specific physical systems, but rather a new framework with universal applicability. This book shows how we can reconstruct the theory from six information-theoretical principles, by rebuilding the quantum rules from the bottom up. Step by step, the reader will learn how to master the counterintuitive aspects of the quantum world, and how to efficiently reconstruct quantum information protocols from first principles. Using intuitive graphical notation to represent equations, and with shorter and more efficient derivations, the theory can be understood and assimilated with exceptional ease.

Deutsch, David. Constructor Theory. Synthese. Online April 18, 2013. You have a sense that the Centre for Quantum Computation, and Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University, philosophical physicist is such a frontier thinker that he must be on to something. This may be true, but daunting to limn from the arcane verbiage of his writing, which applies to most efforts of this kind. The full text is also at arXiv, and a video talk with text on Edge.org. As an editor, they beg translation, authors need to be advised that however brilliant their ideas, if not expressed in a clear, cogent, accessible way, they remain in limbo. If one may broach, somehow this universe of space and time, matter and energy, seems to be sequentially “constructing” itself by way of a program-like informational quality. Sample sections are: 1.3 Constructor theory would underlie all other scientific theories, 2.8 The Computability of nature, 2.16 Emergent and scale-independent laws, 2.17 Complexity theory, and 3.15 Are we universal constructors? Indeed, whatever the actuality might be that David and company, John Archibald Wheeler at turns, are trying to describe? Could it be as simple and obvious, as it must be, if by setting aside a mechanical model, an organic procreation with its own cosmic genetic code could be realized?

Constructor theory seeks to express all fundamental scientific theories in terms of a dichotomy between possible and impossible physical transformations–those that can be caused to happen and those that cannot. This is a departure from the prevailing conception of fundamental physics which is to predict what will happen from initial conditions and laws of motion. Several converging motivations for expecting constructor theory to be a fundamental branch of physics are discussed. Some principles of the theory are suggested and its potential for solving various problems and achieving various unifications is explored. These include providing a theory of information underlying classical and quantum information; generalising the theory of computation to include all physical transformations; unifying formal statements of conservation laws with the stronger operational ones (such as the ruling-out of perpetual motion machines); expressing the principles of testability and of the computability of nature (currently deemed methodological and metaphysical respectively) as laws of physics; allowing exact statements of emergent laws (such as the second law of thermodynamics); and expressing certain apparently anthropocentric attributes such as knowledge in physical terms. (Abstract)

Djordjevic, Ivan. Quantum Biological Information Theory. Berlin: Springer, 2016. A University of Arizona computer engineer achieves a book length treatment of these lively integrative frontiers. Various chapter phrases are Quantum Information Fundamentals, Biological Thermodynamics, Cellular Genetics, and Quantum Mechanics Modeling of Mutations, Aging, Evolution, and Cancer.

Durham, Ian and Dean Rickles, eds. Information and Interaction: Eddington, Wheeler, and the Limits of Knowledge. Berlin: Springer Frontiers, 2016. Select proceedings from a 2014 Trinity College, Cambridge conference on the affine views of the sage physicists Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) and John A. Wheeler (1911-2009). Chapters include Boundaries of Scientific Thought by Ian Durham, Constructor Theory of Information, Chiara Marletto, On Participatory Realism, Christopher Fuchs, and Merging Contradictory Laws: Imagining a Constructive Derivation of Quantum Theory by William Wooters. In regard, the work is muse upon a most intriguing participatory universe whereof human beings have a central, observant role and purpose.

In this essay collection, leading physicists, philosophers, and historians attempt to fill the empty theoretical ground in the foundations of information and address the related question of the limits to our knowledge of the world. Over recent decades, our practical approach to information and its exploitation has radically outpaced our theoretical understanding - to such a degree that reflection on the foundations may seem futile. But it is exactly fields such as quantum information, which are shifting the boundaries of the physically possible, that make a foundational understanding of information increasingly important. One of the recurring themes of the book is the claim by Eddington and Wheeler that information involves interaction and putting agents or observers centre stage. Thus, physical reality, in their view, is shaped by the questions we choose to put to it and is built up from the information residing at its core. This is the root of Wheeler’s famous phrase “it from bit.” After reading the stimulating essays collected in this volume, readers will be in a good position to decide whether they agree with this view. (Publisher)

Physical reality, in their view, is shaped by the questions we choose to put to it and is thus built up from the information thus generated. This is the root of Wheeler’s famous phrase ‘it from bit’, which is taken to anthropic extremes in his (rather less famous) ‘self-excited circuit’ in which all of physical reality (including seemingly paradoxically, ourselves, qua beings of a certain constitution) is determined by the questions of observers whose decisions determine (to some extent) facts as to what has happened and what will happen. The observers (or, less anthropically loaded, the observational equipment involving some irreversible process) play an active, creative role in defining reality. (Preface)

Duwell, Armond. Re-conceiving Quantum Theories in Terms of Information-Theoretic Constraints. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics. 38/1, 2007. Now at the University of Montana, Duwell received a 2004 doctorate in the philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh. Among his thesis advisors were the late Robert Clifton, and Jeffery Bub, who along with Hans Halvorson conceived the ‘CBH’ theory of an informationally based quantum physics. Duwell here argues that its exclusion of hidden variables may be untenable, among other issues. He then goes on to affirm and expand such an informational essence in a way that sets aside the measurement problem and can “embrace all empirically equivalent quantum theories.”

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