In the beginning God created information. Information existed, but it was without form – it had no awareness or understanding of its own existence. Gradually, information started to generate complexity on many scales: from molecules to cells to organs; from individual organisms up through economies, politics, cultures, and civilizations—and out even further into an astronomically large computational universe made up of billions upon billions of galaxies with trillions upon trillions of stars.
Information is something like magic. It determines how well economies grow or fail, which genes are turned on or off, it makes some technologies possible while blocking others — whether those technologies are life changing or just trivial.
Information shapes our understanding of ourselves and how we relate to each other, it defines who we are as a species. The flow of information is essential to living creatures, if our bodies were to halt the transfer of data, we would cease to exist. Yet for all its power, information remains a mystery: Information is scattered, inconsistent, and incomplete.
Entropy is always lurking. It is the second law of thermodynamics after all, and one that seems inherently inevitable — the second you order something into being, it starts to fall apart. Energy disperses, and systems dissolve into chaos. We are constantly fighting against entropy – natural and unnatural alike.
As you read this, entropy is all around you. Cells within your body are dying and degrading, an employee or coworker is making a mistake, the floor is getting dusty, and the heat from your coffee is spreading out. Zoom out a little, and businesses are failing, crimes and revolutions are occurring, and relationships are ending. Zoom out a lot further, and we see the entire universe marching towards a collapse.
In a physical system, information is the opposite of entropy, as it involves uncommon and highly correlated configurations that are difficult to arrive at. We must direct our energies to creations and innovations that fight back the tide of entropy.
If life is the movement of information, and if we think that life is good, it follows that we should extend, deepen and spread the flow of information in the universe. Thus, the ultimate purpose of life, mind and human striving is to deploy energy and information in such a way as to fight back the tide of entropy.
The governance structures, bureaucracies, and business models that serve us today are not going to cope with the issues in a world increasingly overrun by data. These structures simply cannot collect and process the relevant data fast enough.
Look at how things flow, ask how they can flow better.
We must design new systems that increase the flow and output of information. The more connected we become, the faster ideas spread, and the more sophisticated our tools for manipulating information become.
A better way to manage human ideas/information. A more efficient way for ideas to spread and evolve. This is for the spreading of ideas. If the universe is information and data, the system that better helps information spread wins
One thing is clear: Nature gives greater value and support to systems, individuals, and societies that contribute most heavily and efficiently to data processing.