Decoding Reality: the Universe as Quantum Information

This stimulating book is the result of a 15-year reflection on the nature and implications of information, arguing that the universe and everything in it can be understood in terms of information, which he argues is a more fundamental quality than matter or energy and can answer the question about why there is something rather than nothing and the origins of reality. He uses Calvino's metaphor of a card game to illustrate our relationship to nature, summing up the process by stating that 'we compress information into laws from which we construct our reality, and this reality then tells us how to further compress information.' Hence an iterative process. As individuals, we create our own simulation of reality, reflecting the bootstrap theory of John Wheeler who stated: 'physics gives rise to observer-participancy; observer-participancy gives rise to information; information gives rise to physics.' So we realise that our reality consists of an interconnected web of relationships which the author argues are bits of information. However, readers of this publication might be left wondering how the concept of consciousness does not appear in the index, even if the author does refer to the via negativa in Christianity and the teaching of neti, neti (not this, not that) in Hinduism.