Calling energy “information” is the latest version of one of mankind’s oldest philosophic errors — the failure to properly distinguish knowledge of reality and reality. Plato made that error when he created an entirely separate reality to contain human concepts. Kant did it when he said we can only know the phenomenological world, not the noumenal world. Many religions do it when they hold that reality exists only in the mind of God (whatever that may be). Quantum physics does it when they say that we can never know certain facts of reality, only probabilities. And Scientific American did it when they published an article saying that the way to extract the maximum “information” from a 20-megaton nuclear warhead is to detonate it.
I’d explain the correct answer, but nobody’s paying me to do that. Hint: Aristotle was a lot closer to right than Plato.
[Trigger warning: Serious thoughts]
Calling energy “information” is the latest version of one of mankind’s oldest philosophic errors — the failure to properly distinguish knowledge of reality and reality. Plato made that error when he created an entirely separate reality to contain human concepts. Kant did it when he said we can only know the phenomenological world, not the noumenal world. Many religions do it when they hold that reality exists only in the mind of God (whatever that may be). Quantum physics does it when they say that we can never know certain facts of reality, only probabilities. And Scientific American did it when they published an article saying that the way to extract the maximum “information” from a 20-megaton nuclear warhead is to detonate it.
I’d explain the correct answer, but nobody’s paying me to do that. Hint: Aristotle was a lot closer to right than Plato.