Information and the World Stage

Bernard Dugué is a writer-researcher and an engineer of the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne, France. He holds PhDs in pharmacology and philosophy, and his research interests include a range of different subjects covering physics, life sciences, evolution, systemics and philosophy.

• Foreword ixIntroduction xiiiChapter 1 A Presentation of the Paradigm of Information in the 21st Century 11.1 After technology, the philosophy of information 11.1.1 Information, issues and paradigms of the 21st Century 11.1.2 Philosophizing means being concerned 31.1.3 Technology affects us 41.1.4 Information affects us 61.1.5 Where can we situate a philosophy of information? 81.1.6 The two philosophies, technology and information 101.1.7 What is information? 111.1.8 Universal thinking 141.2 CRISPR-Cas9: from mechanism to information in biology 151.2.1 Brief review of a significant scientific discovery 151.2.2 From Monod’s biology to information biology 171.3 Toward a theory of the information act 221.3.1 Image act, the power of images 221.3.2 Thoughts about Horst Bredekamp’s study, the theory of the image act 231.3.3 Language and image resonances 28Chapter 2 Communication Influences the “Mechanisms” of the Living World and Society 312.1 Philosophical approach to cancer through information and immunity 312.1.1 A note on a potential dead end in the research on cancer 312.1.2 An alternative hypothesis: Darwinian carcinogenesis 332.1.3 Leaving the current paradigm behind 342.2 Fanaticism and fantasies, a “pathology” of information and its interpretation 362.3 Scientific communication and modernism in contemporary societies 392.3.1 Distinguishing between technological and mediated activity through social norms and subjects 402.3.2 Destructuring the subject and semantic mediations 412.3.3 Scientific contamination of ideology and depoliticization of society 42Chapter 3 Form, Information and Content 453.1 Form and content, an old story that still affects our existences 453.2 Ontology of form and content 483.3 Brief remarks about a type of philosophical and scientific research 513.3.1 Structure and order of Content: logic and/or structure of form 513.4 Ontology of form and Content, ending the issue of machines before machines end us 533.5 The ontological difference and the path toward Being 553.6 The three colors of Being and modernist perdition 593.7 Brief notes on the oblivion of Content as ontological difference revealed by decline 63Chapter 4 Mass, Charge, Gravity and Rays: Distinguishing Between the Two Kinds of Universal Physics 694.1 Masses, arrangement and mechanics 694.2 Electric charge, spin and dynamics of information 714.3 Light-like and time-like geodesics in relativistic cosmology 744.4 Overview of the dynamics of arrangement and information 774.5 Einstein and the question of the field in physics 804.6 The cosmological alternative in the 21st Century 824.6.1 Provisional conclusion: what kind of physics for the 21st Century? 83Chapter 5 From Objects to Fields, Reinterpreted Contemporary Physics and the Path Toward Quantum Gravity 855.1 Fields, arrangements, communications 855.1.1 Cosmology of communications 875.1.2 Cosmology of arrangements 885.2 Einstein’s treatment of the hole argument 905.3 Quantum gravity, the greatest scientific challenge of the 21st Century 925.3.1 From gravitation to entanglement 925.3.2 Quantum gravity elaborated as physics of information 965.3.3 A digression about the Microscope mission and the notion of gravity-quantum geodesic 1015.3.4 Quantum gravity, a way of conceiving matter, and the Logos of the universe 1055.4 Do gauges reveal the secrets of the universe? 1075.5 The universe as stage and theater of animated objects 1125.5.1 Overview, the actors and the stage 1135.6 Rethinking matter: a summary first glance 1165.7 A second summary view of a universal type of physics: mass, charge, spin, photon 118Chapter 6 Physics in the 21st Century in Relation to Information and Arrangements 1216.1 Action and information, digressions about philosophy and contemporary physics 1216.2 Seeing, perceiving, receiving: Leibniz and Newton 1256.3 Postmodern philosophy of nature and the meaning of existence 1296.4 A universal outline, from quanta to the cosmos, information and arrangement 1316.4.1 The origin of the two kinds of physics 1316.4.2 The two cornerstones of physics in relation to communication and arrangement 1316.5 Time and stage: from quanta to the universe 1356.5.1 Aristotle, Newton and Einstein 1356.5.2 Relativity, of course, but so many mysteries! 1376.5.3 Time and stage 1396.6 Information, memory and order 1426.6.1 Dialectical relationships between information and arrangement in the universe and the living world 1426.6.2 Two kinds of memory, action and perception 1426.6.3 Arrangement, perception and information in nature 1436.7 Some connections between science and the metaphysics of philosophers 1446.8 A new paradigm, information in communication, arrangement and transformation 1476.8.1 To enter the age of information 1486.9 Overview: from quanta to the gravity-quantum apparatus and the universal stage 150Conclusion 155Postface 159Bibliography 161Index 163