Observations placeholder
Wheeler, Professor John – Its from bits
Identifier
025642
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Wheeler, John A. (1990). "Information, physics, quantum: The search for links". In Zurek, Wojciech Hubert. Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information.
Wheeler: It from bit. Otherwise put, every it — every particle, every field of force, even the space-time continuum itself — derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely — even if in some contexts indirectly — from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits.
It from bit symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom — a very deep bottom, in most instances — an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes-no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe.