From Matter to Information

Classically, and conventionally, matter carries information. Newspapers, books, radio signals are all examples. Matter is the basic reality and it carries information. The classical conception of matter (res extensa), however, has been decisively invalidated by quantum mechanics (QM). Nevertheless, QM retains classical properties of matter and simply quantizes them. This has led to a microscopic quantum mechanics (mQM) which is pragmatically useful, but has remained ontologically sterile.

Quantum theory has its own nexus with information that is non-classical, in an as yet unknown sense. Quantum information theory is a result of this insight. However, one of the founders of this new field has opined thus

“Quantum information theory, as it stands, never gets round to specifying what it is referring to as ‘quantum information’, nor its relation to classical information. It is not, despite the name, a theory of a new type of information. A new theory of information is needed within physics but at a deeper level than both [present] quantum theory and Shannon’s theory."

Prof. Gomatam’s effort is precisely in developing such a deeper theory, by developing macroscopic quantum mechanics (MQM) © that is logically independent of current mQM. In MQM, he is moving to develop a new conception of matter within physics called Objective Semantic Information (OSI) ©. OSI can potentially create new technologies that are eco friendly and resource regenerative.

© Ravi V. Gomatam

About

After obtaining his Masters degree in electronics engineering from India, Ravi Gomatam moved to the USA in the early 1970s, ran his own consultancy firm in the areas of operating system design, data communications and very-large database design, and carried out projects for many fortune-500 companies including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Burroughs and IBM. In the mid 1980s, he turned to academics, obtaining his Ph.D. in the foundations of quantum mechanics, which remains his area of active research.

Prof. Gomatam is developing what he calls the post-quantum ontic theory of quantum phenomena, around an exciting and new view of matter that he calls “objective semantic information” (OSI). OSI can be and is being applied by him in many other fields of science and technology.

Scholarly Appreciations