We have long taken it for gravity is one of the bases nature forces – One of the invisible sons that keeps the universe sewn together. But suppose that this is not true. Suppose that the law of gravity is simply an echo of something more fundamental: a by-product of the universe operating under a computer type code.
This is the premise of my latest research, Posted in the AIP Advances journal. This suggests that gravity is not a mysterious force that attracts objects to each other, but the product of an information law of nature that I call the second law of infodynamics.
This is a notion that resembles science fiction – but which is based on physics and proof that the universe seems to work with suspicion as a computer simulation.
In digital technologies, up to the applications of your phone and in the world of cyberspace, efficiency is the key. Computers compact and restructure their data all the time to record the memory and power of the computer. Maybe the same thing takes place throughout the universe?
Information theory, mathematical study of quantification, storage and communication of information, can help us understand what is going on. Initially Developed by the mathematician Claude ShannonIt has become more and more popular in physics and is used in an increasing range of research areas.
In a 2023 paperI used the information theory to propose my second law of infodynamics.
This states that “entropy” of information, or the level of information disorganization, will have to reduce or remain static in a given information system. This is the opposite of the second popular law of thermodynamicsWho dictates this physical entropy, or disorder, always increases.
Take a cooling cup from coffee. The energy circulates from hot to cold until the coffee temperature is the same as the room temperature and its energy is minimal – a state called thermal balance. The entropy of the system is maximum at this stage – with all the molecules distributed to the maximum, having the same energy. This means that the spread of molecule energies in the liquid is reduced.
If we consider the content of the information of each molecule according to its energy, then at the beginning, in the cup of hot coffee, the information entropy is maximum and at balance, the information entropy is minimal. Indeed, almost all molecules are at the same level of energy, becoming identical characters in an information message. Thus, the spread of the different energies available is reduced when there is a thermal balance.
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But if we just consider the location rather than the energy, there are many information disorders when the particles are distributed at random in space – the information necessary to monitor the pace is considerable. However, when they consolidate together under a gravitational attraction, how planets, stars and galaxies do it, the information is compacted and more manageable.
In simulations, this is exactly what happens when a system tries to operate more effectively. Thus, the material flowing under the influence of gravity should not be at all the result of a force. It may be a function of how the universe compacts the information with which he must work.
Here, the space is not continuous and smooth. The space is made up of tiny “cells” of information, similar to pixels in a photo or squares on the screen of a computer game. In each cell, there is basic information on the universe – where, for example, a particle is – and all are gathered to make the fabric of the universe.
If you place elements in this space, the system becomes more complex. But when all of these elements meet to be a single element instead of many, the information is simple again.
The universe, under this point of view, tends to naturally seek to be in these minimum information states of information. The real kicker is that if you make the figures, the entropic “information force” created by this tendency to simplicity is exactly equivalent to the Newton’s gravitation law, As indicated in my article.
This theory is based on previous studies on “entropic gravity” but goes further. By connecting the dynamics of information with gravity, we are brought to the interesting conclusion that the universe could work on a kind of cosmic software. In an artificial universe, maximum efficiency rules would be expected. We could expect symmetries. Compression would be expected.
And the law – that is to say gravity – should emerge from these calculation rules.
We may have no final evidence that we live in a simulation. But the more we look deeply, the more our universe seems to behave as A calculation process.
Melvin M. VOPSONAssociate Professor of Physics, University of Portsmouth
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