[Music]
I want to talk to you about information
instinctively we think we know what it
is and so we should were surrounded by
it
smartphones social media TV advertising
even the fact that I'm talking to you
and you might want to talk to me at that
level the idea of information is very
familiar to us we just literally get it
right but I don't want to talk to you
about that at all I want to talk to you
about something far deeper something
much more powerful I want to talk about
the idea that information might be
essential to everything and I literally
mean everything the idea that
information might even be a foundational
element of the universe itself now
that's a big claim that's a really big
claim how can I even go there well
actually I can because it's possible to
think of the universe as just being one
vast information processing engine it
takes in information over time and it
transforms it into well whatever this
thing around us is we choose to call
reality but that presents us with a
really clear problem because even though
the idea of information touches
everything that we know an experience
even today no matter where you look or
how hard you try you'll still not find a
universally accepted definition of what
information is now I think we should
care about that
I think we should properly care about
that because even though individual
fields of human endeavor have grown
increasingly comfortable with their own
interpretations of information how can
we that's you and you and certainly me
how can we Clinton or anything about
anything if we don't have that one clear
shared
understanding of that one thing that
flows through everything Wow for me that
problem is both overwhelmingly obvious
and yet mind-bendingly difficult to come
to terms with yeah even though
philosophers and scientists have
struggled with the idea of information
down the edges the story doesn't stop
there there's no full stop at the end of
that sentence because a lot of progress
has been made as one example today we've
now come to realize that the difference
between things like cups and saucers
tables and chairs apples or pears may
not actually be down to the things
themselves but rather the individual
viewpoints from which they're being
observed so what I thought I'd like to
do is take you all on a bit of a journey
from a scientific perspective it's a
journey of eight steps and by the end of
it hopefully I'll be pointing to you at
least in the right direction of warned
plausible if not sensible definition of
information now as I take you on that
journey I'm going to have to set the
scene a bit and admittedly I'll
apologize up front I'm going to have to
simplify things slightly but please stay
with it because by the end of step six
some real magics gonna kick in to help
round things off ok so we ready let's go
then
step one complexity is hopefully obvious
in that eventually we realize that the
world around us is actually a complex
thing now most of us will only make
sense of the world or see the cent the
world is making sense when it's framed
by something that matters to us now
that's the important things in life like
family friends or perhaps even work but
it is possible to make sense of the
world by thinking in terms of
connections that's one thing connected
to another either by physical attachment
Association over time or simply overlap
of definition or understanding in the
end it probably comes down to something
we've known all along reality is nothing
more than a complex tapestry of
everything but that presents another
problem because the very limits of the
human brain lead us to absolutely head
complexity when complexity gets to a
certain level we just literally switch
out so that brings us to
- because fortunately we've managed to
find some ways to cut through some of
that complexity to find some simplicity
this is where hardcore science has come
in really handy by discovering time and
time again that the universe is willing
to talk to us in shorthand the evidence
is out there we see it in the equations
of science like equals mc-squared
which are basically just summaries of
huge quantities of data distilled and
organized using the language of math so
we can understand them properly
now equation to find equations are great
but in certain circumstances they're not
the best so that takes us to step 3
patterns which points out that
fortunately we found other ways to
describe the world one of those is using
advances in modern computers to simply
go looking for patterns out there in all
that data and the use of patterns not
only appeals to the way that we
naturally see the world but importantly
it's helping us get to grips with
certain types of complexity that moves
us on to step 4 networks and that simply
acknowledges the fact that we've started
to recognize important types of pattern
now one of those isn't a million miles
away from the good old 8020 rule that
you're probably already familiar with so
just let me refresh your memory
the 80/20 rule tells us of situations
where the majority of the effect is
generated by a surprisingly small amount
of the input used to create it and
that's why the 80/20 rule kind of
explains why at any one time there's
only a very very small number of big
spenders in the world or famous film
stars or for that matter as you've
probably noticed popular people at a
party we've all been there right
certainly I have that but I hear your
sister right
they form the focus of attention and
most of the other party goes there will
congregate around them in close
proximity now if you wanted to draw that
type of arrangement you'd create a
network not unlike the one you see
behind me now that type of formation is
known as being scale free so we've
created a scale-free Network and in
certain circumstances it just turns out
that scale-free networks are remarkably
similar to the 80/20 rule onion pattern
form this time now that takes us onto
step 5
commonplace and this is where the magic
kind of starts to kick in because it
turns out that scale freeness is
remarkably commonplace and varied if you
look across nature you'll see scale free
networks for example in certain types of
chemical network or the organic
evolution of plants perhaps but you
would think that scale free networks or
scale freeness would have absolutely no
right at all to exist in man-made
systems but here's the thing if you to
examine the way that web sites connect
for example or the way that cities grow
or the way that consensus flows across a
social network then the likelihood is
that scale freeness will still be
relatively close by and the reason for
that is that scale freeness appears to
minimize the amount of communication
effort needed in networks and it does
that by channeling the information
present through a limited number of
concentration points or hubs
these aren't unlike the railway stations
we might see in any big city such as
Hong Kong Rome London or San Francisco
right yeah but interestingly as well the
example that I really like is that you
can find scale freeness in the trunk of
a tree where branches meet roots that
nicely appeals to me yeah so scale
freeness firstly helps the flow of
information across the network and more
importantly it also apparently helps to
keep networks efficient no matter how
or complex they might grow now I'll come
back to why that's important at the end
of step 7 but for now let me focus back
on the idea of information and that
brings us to step 6 not data because
even though we may not understand the
idea of information properly today we do
understand the idea of data really well
today we recognize it as now stay with
me because at this point I've got a read
from the textbook because this bits
tricky micro parcels of meaning
delivered using symbols of numbers or
letters you write thanks for that
because that was a bit of a tongue
twister right however back in the room
those systems of symbols are basically
just like the equations of maths or
science shorthand that we have jointly
agreed yeah we also know that that value
can be added by increasing the amount of
structure present so for example if we
were to take a string of eight digits
and intersperse it with two slashes then
sometimes we might transform what we
would originally recognize as a number
into something that would be much more
familiar to us as a date but it's only
when context is added and data plus
structure is linked to other constructs
like names or places the information is
truly formed and we come to understand
that what we actually might have is
somebody's date of birth context
therefore brings data to life
it makes the concepts content within
feel real to us it anchors them into our
world now that brings me to step 7
context which basically just highlights
the importance of both context and
networks in the formation of information
after all what would reality be without
at least an appreciation of the
connected nature of everything around
and within us and that's why when geeks
like me think of science and its
underlying math we actually think of the
story of information now here it is he
the takeaway point and for me that makes
information truly the most fundamental
of fundamental things the magic
ingredient in all of this is context it
adds that one thing special it allows us
to draw meaning from the world now that
might seem like a bit of a leap so I'm
gonna take a liberty just let me explain
a little bit further in many ways
context can be thought of as a kind of
container marking out the importance of
purpose of the information contained
within it therefore pulls together a
number of story lines but it also stops
those storylines from spiraling out of
control now in many ways that means that
context can be thought of as both the
scissors and the glue we use to create
our individual viewpoints on the world a
story lines converge diverge and emerge
they provide our in the individual take
on the world as we interact with and I
need to get the text book out again I'm
sorry as we interact with the universal
network of meaning and this is where
scale-free networks come back in because
scale-free networks
apparently allow us to absorb the
relevancies contained no matter how
large or complex there might be in
essence their coping mechanisms to allow
us to interact with reality and that
brings us to our final step convergence
and this is where the magic really
really starts to emanate out the terms
Universal and network are not a play on
words I'm using them exceptionally
deliberately because not only there do
they remind us that our minds make sense
of the world by creating complex Maps or
networks of understanding but they also
point to an alignment with some really
really fundamental science so networks
all networks are basically just a form
of geometry and that's an expansion on
the really simple idea of connecting or
making links drawing links between one
thing and another now here's the thing
Einstein for one lent very heavily on
the idea of geometry when he explained
to was the way the world works as a
whole quantum physicists also rely on
geometry although admittedly they use it
in different ways and this time to
explain the world at minut levels of
detail but nevertheless both still use
geometry to pull together their ideas to
create important world views but neither
can yet present a perfect picture of the
world and it's precisely for reasons
like that that the ideas of information
and networks are coming into the
spotlight by doing so they're pulling
together traditional thinking with more
contemporary ideas on complexity to
hopefully and I mean fingers crossed
fill some important gaps in our
understanding right so having been on
this journey might it be possible to
return to the original question posed
and answer what is information so at
this point is done back because I'm
about to jump off the cliff right I'm
foolishly going to try by suggesting
that perhaps it is our regulated
interaction with the network of
existence that is our universe now hands
up I know to some that might still sound
really complicated but actually it's not
actually it's super simple
in fact it's so simple it's almost
poetic what it's actually telling us is
that if and when we finally do find an
explanation for everything out there the
bit that links everything together will
be really important the piece of the
jigsaw we're still missing is the piece
that links our experiences of the world
with the world itself and that for me is
the very essence of information every
last bit of it when we do get that clear
shared understanding of information
surely it'll give us some additional
insight into the who where when and what
the universe is and perhaps
please perhaps it might even give us a
tantalizing glimpse into the answer to
what has to be the biggest question of
all and that has to be why is the
universe there in the first place
and why the hell are we in it thank you
for joining me on this journey
[Applause]