Fumfer Physics 2: Black Holes vs. Stars

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: From an information-theoretic perspective that marries quantum mechanics with general relativity, how would you contrast a black hole with a star, an information-processing object embedded in the wider cosmos?

Rick Rosner: We do not yet have a complete definition of what information is, or the exact context needed for something to be considered "information." However, the behaviour of objects in the universe is related to how information shapes the world.

The rules of information—which incorporate quantum mechanics and some form of general relativity—are the rules governing the creation and definition of space, matter, and energy. Therefore, you must examine how information shapes black holes and how it creates the conditions that allow stars to exist and produce radiant energy. The entire framework remains unknown, but…

The mathematics of black holes supports the hypothesis, even among traditional physicists, that the universe itself might exist within a black hole. A black hole curves space so that nothing can escape, and you see a similar kind of curvature in an expanding Big Bang universe—or a contracting one. In either case, the universe is curved back onto itself.

That shape of space is underdetermined, but it is self-contained, self-defined, and filled with information.

A black hole is essentially a concentrated mass of information. Its space is defined far more intensely by the relationships among the matter and energy within it than in the broader universe. The scale of its space and curvature comes directly from differentiation among its contents.

By contrast, most non-collapsed matter in the more expansive universe, including stars, does not create such extreme gravitational gradients.

The difference between a black hole and a star is that a black hole is essentially a universe unto itself. In contrast, a star is an object within a universe. That is the short answer.

But each—the space around it, or the space comprising it—is defined by informational relationships among the matter in the universe. You have these little "information engines," which are basically the five long-lasting particles: photons, neutrinos, protons, electrons, and neutrons.

Of course, those particles depend on supporting particles—you cannot have a proton without its constituent quarks, or without gluons to hold the nucleus together. However, it is the five big ones and their interactions, as well as the structures they form, that build the macro objects we recognize.

Think of it like a car. You think of the body, the engine, the wheels, maybe the transmission. Those are the principal components, but in reality, a vehicle is composed of 4,500 smaller parts that are linked together. Likewise, these information engines have the obvious significant components, but the rest of particle physics supports those.

So in any reasonable information-based universe, you have these little information engines forming macrostructures. Those macrostructures differentiate the matter within the universe in a way that contains, preserves, and transmits information.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018-7399; Online: ISSN 2163-3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.