[Paleopsych] information inflation

[HowlBloom at aol.com]

New  ways of interpreting information increase the amount of information—and 
of  information’s consequences—in the cosmos.  When photons from a distant 
star hit the face of an empty planet, they  mean just about nothing.  Give that  
planet 3.85 billion years or so to evolve star-gazers, mythmakes, and  
astrology, and the information gleaned from the same photons goes up  exponentially. 
 So do the number of  decisions based on the distant star’s trickle of 
photons.   
Give the  life-forms on that previously empty planet another few hundred 
thousand  years to evolve astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology, and the 
information  gleaned from the star’s photon trickle goes up by a factor of ten or 
more.  So do the decisions based on that photon  drip. 
Which means that the cosmos is not just inflating in  physical space and 
time.  It’s not  just expanding in the intricacy of its structures and its 
processes.  It’s also expanding in its  information-content…and in its richness of 
causes and effects. 
New  ways of seeing lead to new ways of being.  And new ways of being lead to 
new ways of seeing.  Information chews on what information  spews.  And the 
cosmos fattens as it  grows. 
Howard
 
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Howard Bloom
Author of The Lucifer Principle: A  Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of 
History and Global Brain: The Evolution  of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 
21st Century
Visiting Scholar-Graduate  Psychology Department, New York University; Core 
Faculty Member, The Graduate  Institute
www.howardbloom.net
www.bigbangtango.net
Founder:  International Paleopsychology Project; founding board member: Epic 
of Evolution  Society; founding board member, The Darwin Project; founder: The 
Big Bang Tango  Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American 
Association for the  Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society, 
Academy of Political  Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, International 
Society for Human  Ethology; advisory board member: Youthactivism.org; 
executive editor -- New  Paradigm book series.
For information on The International Paleopsychology  Project, see: 
www.paleopsych.org
for two chapters from 
The Lucifer  Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History, 
see  www.howardbloom.net/lucifer
For information on Global Brain: The Evolution of  Mass Mind from the Big 
Bang to the 21st Century, see  www.howardbloom.net

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