Louisville Process Theology Network

Information Never Dies

“This law (the First Law of Thermodynamics) states that although energy comes in many forms, and it can change from one form to another, the total amount never changes. The conservation of energy is one of the most accurately confirmed facts of nature, and there is not much room to tamper with it……

Energy is a shape shifter…..Kinetic, potential, chemical, electrical, nuclear, and thermal (heat) are some of the shapes energy can take. It is constantly morphing from one form to another……

There is another very subtle law of physics that may be even more fundamental than energy conservation. It’s sometimes called ‘reversibility’, but let’s just call it ‘information conservation’……

Information can mean many things…..In sense that physicists use the word, information is made of matter and it is found somewhere. The information in this book is a rectangular volume of space……(On the other hand, though, information moves in endless waves.)

(So, it appears we live) inside a cosmic horizon...composed of horizon-atoms that absorb, scramble, and then return all bits of information……

Information does leak out of black holes (and other matter) and eventually winds up in the evaporation products.”

Excerpts of “The Back Hole War” by Leonard Susskind