Simon Powell - The Psilocybin Solution

The resulting plant forms, in this view, are no less than natural, ongoing, organic “utterances,” or expressions, shaped in response to the surrounding environmental context. The key point is that the interaction of the plant with the environment can be described in terms of a dialogue-like, language-like process of information flow. There are no rigid boundaries at all; rather, there exists a hierarchy of informational systems in which patterns and structures constantly flow and influence one another. Information is everywhere, residing in systems as diverse as biology and the human psyche. All systems can be viewed as patterns, or architectures, of information embedded within one another. Further, when one pattern influences the form of another, the process appears to be remarkably language-like.

But what of inorganic matter? Can we stretch the language-like informational paradigm to cover entities like physical elements? We should not forget that atoms underlie the various informational systems we have been discussing. If we take the most basic element, hydrogen, I see no reason why we should not consider it to be akin, in computer terminology, to a localized “byte” of information, divisible into even smaller “bits” (each byte in a computer’s memory consists of a string of eight elementary digital on-or-off bits). What makes an element of hydrogen different from, say, an element of iron is its atomic configuration. The structural form of hydrogen (its pattern) is such that it bears specific systematic relations to other elements. Here again, we arrive at an informational and language-like conception of hydrogen. It is an atomic expression, a “word unit” in the language of physics. Put hydrogen in the context of another element, like oxygen, and their relational properties cause the formation of water molecules. Or, put an atom of hydrogen in the context of a star, and another aspect of its information becomes apparent, in this case its ability to undergo nuclear fusion. A star thus evokes one particular kind of information embodied within hydrogen, a fact of no small import for the existence of life on Earth.

An atom of hydrogen can therefore be understood as being a localization of basic information, an element within the most primal language of the Universe . With this view, the basic “matter” of the Universe starts to dissolve, and instead we see only information. All elements—from argon to gold to zinc—are here inferred to be units of information whose informational substance differs according to the relational role they play in a language of elements. This is the informational language of physics, as opposed to the informational language of, say, biochemistry, genetics, or psychology.

To gain a perspective on the sheer expressive capacity of the language system of elements, one has only to think of all the countless ways in which basic elements like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, phosphorous, magnesium, and nitrogen can combine, yielding such varied forms as DNA, methane, ammonia, psilocybin, sugar, chlorophyll, amino acids, proteins, and so on. This implies that the language of physics underlies the language of chemistry, which further underlies the language of biology. Once more, one can divine that all these languages of Nature are part of an interconnected continuum wrought of information and within which the various kinds of information are everywhere flowing.

When we come to the various particles of which atoms themselves are made (protons, neutrons, and electrons), we are confronted by still more basic units of information, akin to on-off computer bits or the individual letters that make up words. The following relevant quotation on the nature of elementary particles comes from physicist and philosopher Fritjof Capra, who, through his examination of quantum physics, has also concluded that the classical Newtonian view of particles as being “material stuff ” is no longer tenable. In The Tao of Physics, Capra writes:

The high-energy scattering experiments of the past decades have shown us the dynamic and ever-changing nature of the particle world in the most striking way. Matter has appeared in these experiments as completely mutable. All particles can be transmuted into other particles; they can be created from energy and can vanish into energy. In this world, classical concepts like ‘elementary particle’, ‘material substance’ or ‘isolated object’, have lost their meaning; the whole universe appears as a dynamic web of inseparable energy patterns. {34} 34 1. Capra, The Tao of Physics, 83.

Such a Universe of weblike energy patterns is entirely compatible with the language-like informational model being developed here. As stated, a language system like English consists of discrete informational elements (words) that derive their meaning from their relationship to things in the world and, more important perhaps, the specific functional role they play within a system of (words). If we take a French word like bon, we see that it plays the same functional role within the French language as does the word good in the English language. The word good is the point where a set of informational relations converge, and since all languages contain similar informational relations, they can be translated into one another.

Words can therefore be understood as being formal units of information that, when joined together, create further patterns of information. This also holds true for units of information like particles and atoms. They derive their meaning from their relations with other particles and atoms and, like words, they can form together to create an endless amount of new patterns or expressions.

The same principle applies to the languages of chemistry, biochemistry, and genetics. In each of these language-like systems, the elements involved bear definite relations to one another, and the relations determine the nature and meaning of each element. Although each particular language-like system operates on a different scale and uses a different kind of logic, all interpenetrate one another, and all foster the continual flow of information.

The Universe can now be understood as a kind of ongoing dialogue, or story even, in which language-like patterns of information are forever in the process of informing one another. As this universal tide of information flows, merges, folds, knits, weaves, and feeds back on itself, novel patterns of information are continually being stimulated and declared into existence. Particles, atoms, elements, molecules, cells, microorganisms, plants, animals, humans, minds, ideas, and so on—all are forms of information continually in process. Any “thing” or object is where a vast set of relations converge, and, ultimately, all these sets of relations form a coherent interconnected whole. Nothing is isolated; everything is relationally connected to, and defined by, everything else. Patterns within patterns within patterns. Whether potential or active, information is everywhere. Nature is made of it, fundamentally so.

Regarding this informational approach to understanding Nature, George Johnson introduces the same paradigm as championed by the Santa Fe Institute in his book Fire in the Mind . The scientists at the Santa Fe Institute study complexity (in all of its incarnations), and some are convinced that information is a fundamental property of Nature. Johnson reports on one of their typical conferences:

Most of us are used to thinking of information as secondary, not fundamental, something that is made from matter and energy…. But to many of those at the Santa Fe conference, the world just didn’t make sense unless information was admitted into the pantheon, on an equal footing with mass and energy. A few went so far as to argue that information may be the most fundamental of all; that mass and energy could somehow be derived from information. {35} 35 2. Johnson, Fire in the Mind, 110.