Melvin Vopson’s research from the University of Portsmouth could have far-reaching implications for science, philosophy and… technology. Physics as we know it may just gain a new principle – the ‘law of infodynamics’ – which posits that information not only influences matter, but co-creates it itself.
In his work, Vopson suggests that information has mass and therefore enters into the building blocks of elementary particles. Moreover, this information mass may be responsible for phenomena at the level of genetics, particle physics and cosmology. If the hypothesis is confirmed, information will not only become a carrier of content, but also a viable component of matter – just as ‘physical’ as energy or classical mass.
In parallel, Vopson points out that the universe exhibits features typical of computer systems: optimisation, symmetry, compression. These insights support the popular but still controversial simulation hypothesis, according to which our reality may be an advanced computer simulation and the laws of physics are simply code.
From a scientific point of view, this is a risky thesis, but not impossible. In physics, models are increasingly emerging in which information becomes as fundamental as space-time. The question of whether Vopson’s discovery can be confirmed empirically is crucial – so far, the theory is mainly based on mathematical deductions and analogies.
For the technology world – and investors who are thinking about the future of AI, quantum computers or biological engineering – this is a topic worth watching. If information does indeed have mass, this changes not only our understanding of reality, but also the potential limits of computation, memory or machine-matter interaction.
For now, it is speculation, but it is from these hypotheses that future paradigms are born.
