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The Nature of Information

From: http://www.thenatureofinformation.com/

Mind, consciousness, and the fundamental creative force in the universe are mass- energy forms of a mass-energy, space-time continuum free of gods or any metaphysical or supernatural forces. That is the central premise of the paper offered for sale on this website. THE NATURE OF INFORMATION describes a revolutionary theory that defines the fundamental universal creative force or mechanism, and mind and consciousness, as mass-energy phenomena, eliminating the so-called mind-body or brain-mind problem.

In my book, THE NATURE OF INFORMATION (Praeger/Greenwood), I described the mechanism by which information can be seen to be an entirely mass-energy process. The promotional material for the book reads, in part, as follows:

Although modern science describes the universe as a mass-energy system, and the objects and events that comprise it as mass-energy phenomena, it utilizes the abstract term "information" extensively to characterize not only a broad range of physical, chemical and biological processes, but also mind, consciousness and mental events, despite the lack of a general definition of information valid for all its uses. THE NATURE OF INFORMATION provides such a definition, resulting not only in identification of the fundamental creative and control mechanism immanent in the universe by which mass- energy systems generate and regulate their organization and behavior, but the natural unification of matter and mind.

THE NATURE OF INFORMATION traces the evolution of the term "information" from its general linguistic use into the mainstream of modern science, proposing an entirely new definition of information as a mass-energy phenomenon. It demonstrates that information is in all cases a form phenomenon, both form and information are mass- energy, rather than abstract, phenomena, mind can be viewed as a mass-energy form- manipulating process, and form constitutes a mechanism immanent in the physical universe via which mass-energy systems can communicate informationally and control their own energetic activities.

The universe as a total mass-energy system will be seen to be able to exercise its creative, control and communicative functions by manipulating forms of itself (e.g., structures, patterns, arrangements, etc.), many of which remain constant over multiple inward and outward mass-energy flows, enabling us to view ourselves, finally, as forms of a self-organizing, self-regulating, mass-energy universe, joined to the rest of the world in a natural and fundamental way. As physicist Victor Weisskopf put it, "Nature, in the form of man, begins to recognize itself." The Nature of Information. p. x.

The review of the book by the Australasian Journal of Philosophy (Vol. 68. No. 2) reads, in part:

"Mind, self-consciousness, and other such obstreperous rebels against the creeping materialist hegemony are cajoled into peaceful co-existence with science, by turning them into sophisticated patterns of flow of form...The doctrine that...mind is just matter is taken not as demeaning mind, but as ennobling matter...Materialism takes on the mantle of evangelical deep ecology."

This revolutionary work on understanding information flow as an entirely mass-energy process will prove invaluable to a wide range of scholars in the physical, chemical, biological, cognitive and social sciences, as well as the humanities, and be of particular significance to information theorists, philosophers of science, philosophers of mind, and all those interested in understanding the universe, including mind and consciousness, as a total mass-energy system.

THE NATURE OF INFORMATION is now also available as a twenty-five page paper in which I have distilled all the central ideas contained in the book. You can purchase and download the paper immediately by clicking on the link marked ORDER. A copy of the six-page bibliography from the book is included with the paper.

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To read selections from the paper prior to deciding whether to purchase it or not, click on SELECTIONS.

The book, THE NATURE OF INFORMATION, is available from Greenwood Press at www. greenwood.com. It also is available at many university libraries, including those at Princeton, MIT, Cornell, Columbia, Rutgers, Stanford, UCLA, and Oxford, as well as a number of regional public libraries. To see a complete list, click on LIBRARIES.

Copyright (c) 2005 by Paul Young