
Information May Have Mass - jbotz
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5123794
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saurik
> To test the hypothesis we propose here an experiment, predicting that the
> mass of a data storage device would increase by a small amount when is full
> of digital information relative to its mass in erased state.

Isn't a disk in its "erased state"\--whether storing zeroes or random values--
still storing information?...

> An example of true erased state would be an array of bits in a magnetic data
> storage memory, in which the erase operation does not imply reset of all
> bits to identical magnetized state, but total demagnetization of each bit,
> so neither 1, nor 0 could be identified in any of the bits.

But if you instead think of the drive as a ternary storage system, now it
suddenly would be storing actual valid values, and you can also always define
the magnetic readings to be a fully analog storage: so this definition of
"information" has to be flawed for being subjective.

Something with a lack of information would need to be something of high
entropy--essentially the opposite of information--and thereby more
indistinguishable along some axis towards a chaotic gas or whatever.

> From (6), mbit = 0 at T = 0K, so as expected, no information can exist at
> zero absolute.

Isn't this the exact opposite of correct? Information is maximized at absolute
zero, which is used as the definition point of minimal entropy (which is,
again, the lack of information).

~~~
jajag
Yeah I'm struggling with that bit also; shouldn't information content be
defined as the difference between a storage device with all bits set to the
same 0 or 1 value, vs. a device with all bits set to purely random values? And
can you isolate a measure of information content from the system that
generates that information?

