Does lost information still exist?

[md65536]

I'm currently siding with the opinion that information that does not have an effect on anything else, does not exist.

Is this true (or false) based on definitions ("exist" etc) or scientific laws?

 

 

Why I think it's true:

- If it has or can have no effect on anything, then it doesn't matter if it exists or not (there is no difference in the observable universe), and it seems like existence would require such a thing, by definition.

 

Why I think it might be false:

- Conservation laws; symmetry etc. If you have energy and you lose it, you know by conservation laws that it is not destroyed, and you can deduce that it still exists. I don't think this is valid, because it would require an assumption of the existence of things we have no way of knowing anything about. If we know that some energy has been lost (if there is some evidence of it left in the known universe, this constitutes a "memory" of the information, which might be considered an observable effect of the information??? This might require the distinction between "observable information", "deducible information", "lost information" (unknown information that might be found again), and maybe "destroyed information".

 

 

 

Examples:

- If you beam light into deep/empty space, and in the case that it may never come back, is that information lost? If it doesn't interact with anything, it is undetectable(?). Wouldn't this have happened with the big bang, where a lot of light would have escaped and continued outward forever, with no way for us to measure? Is there some unknowable amount of energy that is assumed to have escaped the big bang, or are there clues left behind to be able to determine the total energy of the big bang?

 

- If you send a light signal across empty space (say from Earth to moon), that light does not seem to exist except where it is sent and where it is received. For the duration of its "flight", the photons have no effect on anything, and they are undetectable (except by something that changes their destination, in which case they still only exist where they have an effect). There is no observable difference between photons flying from one place to another, vs. photons jumping from one place and time to another.

 

- If an event is completely forgotten (no memory of it, not written down anywhere, no evidence of it, no lasting effect on any energy or particles), is there any meaningful definition that says the event actually happened? This might get into many-worlds interpretation etc.

 

- If you have 2 entangled particles and lose one, can you deduce the existence of the lost one from the known one? Are there such clues about all possible particles, found in all known particles?

[1123581321]

With the understanding of hyperspace and the existence of hidden realities within reality - quantum universes etc. Its fair to say that information may not be possible to loose simply because it exists, therefore its existence is a factor of existence. because of this is cannot escape its system - for which it exists. Therefore by this, i mean that information may just be beyond out perceptive capability not nonexistent. perhaps in a different way u could think of it like the phases of matter (as described by chemistry). the liquid or the molecules of the liquid don't magically vanished they simply evaporate. and just because they no longer have any effect on the liquid system says nothing about them not existing but simply because they are no longer part of that liquid system they no longer have any influence on it or r involved with any of is associated interactions. So basically what i mean is that information may be needed so a system can exists without errors of existential factors which allow it too exist (within existence).

 

i realise this is probably a lot more philosophical than u would like, but i hope that it makes sense in some way. its also necessary to consider other quantum values as well as the mind.. which is know to have some sort of interconnectedness with reality or at least what 'we' call reality. So it may very well b that information is linked with it in some way, or may even b it...

 

the holographic universe may provide explanations, if u haven't done so already.