Draft:Kabbalah of Information

Kabbalah of Information

Kabbalah of Information is the theory created by Eduard Shyfrin, PhD explained in his books From Infinity to Man and The Relativity of Death – Part 1.

Kabbalah of Information is based on the works of Rabbi Itzak Luria, Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla, Rabbi Schneur Zalman from Lyadi, John Archibald Wheeler, Manfred Eigen, Richard Hamming, Claude Shannon.

The cornerstone idea of Kabbalah of Information is as Shyfrin put it in From Infinity to Man: “In the beginning G-d created information and He didn’t create anything else, just shaped and formed it”.

Principles

In his book The Relativity of Death – Part 1 Shyfrin laid out the main principles of Kabbalah of Information.

1. METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

The Creation itself and all the phenomena in Creation must be considered from the only point of view – why it was necessary for the creation and existence of Man.

This principle resonates with the thesis of Judaism, saying that Man is an ultimate goal of Creation and at the same time, has some analogies with the family of “anthropic principles” in science.

It is a well-known fact that our Universe is fine-tuned for life. The miniscule change of one of 200 basic physical constants renders life impossible.

In 1957, Robert Dicke came to the conclusion that the lifetime of the Universe is not random and is determined by the necessity of the production of all the elements necessary for life. In 1973, Brandon Carter developed “anthropic” principles – Weak Anthropic Principle (WAP) and Strong Anthropic Principle (SAP). In brief, the meaning of WAP – we are here because the Universe is fine-tuned for life, the meaning of SAP – the Universe is meant to be fine-tuned for life.

1.1. Torah is a single whole.

Studying the Torah, we must remember that an answer to the question related to the episode in one chapter could be found in another chapter analysing the hidden and open analogies.

1.2 Kabbalah of Information employs the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) put forward by Godfrid Leibnitz and formulated as follows: “ And that of sufficient reason, by virtue of which we consider that we can find no true or existent fact [fait], no true assertion [énunciation véritable], without there being a sufficient reason why it is thus and not otherwise, although most of the time these reasons cannot be known to us. (G VI, 612/L 646)

1.3. Principle of circularity - G-d affects Man, Man affects G-d.

2. FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES

2.1. At the beginning, He (Ein Sof) created Structural Information and He didn’t create anything else.

2.2. The creation of Structural Information implied the creation of the medium – Information Space – and the recipient, Man.

2.3. Information Space is made of concepts of different complexity and dimensionality, expressed by letters and numbers. Information Space is built on the principles of hierarchy, likeness and correspondence; and divided into the parts (worlds in traditional Kabbalah).

These principles are based on the ideas expressed in the basic book of Kabbalah – Sefer Yetzirah and resonate with the teachings of the great kabbalists: Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Nachmanides), Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (Ari), Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.

In science these principles resonate with the idea “It from Bit” put forward by John Archibald Wheeler. Wheeler posed the question “Its as bits, yes, and physics as information, yes, but whose information?” The analogous question was posed by quantum physicist John Bell “Whose information is that and about what?”

Kabbalah of Information provides an answer: “Information of G-d, about His Creation, meant for Man.”

2.4. G-d is perfect. He doesn’t do unnecessary work.

This principle is the root of the number of “minimal principles” – Principle of Least Action, Fermat Principle of Least Time, Principle of Minimum Energy.

3. PRINCIPLES OF RELATIVITY

3.1. Creation – relative to the Creator, Creation – relative to Man.

3.2. Any event or phenomena in Creation, including life and death, must be considered relative to the part of Information Space (world) where it occurs.

4. PRINCIPLES OF THE CREATION OF MAN

4.1. The first creation of Man took place not on physical Earth, but in the zone of Information Space called Sefira Malchut of the world of Atzilut.

4.2. The creation of the world Beriah, Yetzirah and our world Assiah was a consequence of the Sin of Man.

4.3. The physical laws of our Universe are determined by the nature of the punishment of Man.

The above-mentioned principles sound radical, but they didn’t come from nowhere.

They are based on the Principle – G-d is perfect, He doesn’t do unnecessary work – and on the fact of the existence of the unsurmountable contradictions between the two accounts of the creation of Man in the Torah. The latter was noted and discussed by our sages. The employment of the above-mentioned principles fully resolves all the contradictions between the two accounts on the creation of Man in the Torah.

As far as the nature of the punishment of Man is concerned (Genesis 3:17): “And to man He said, "Because you listened to your wife, and you ate from the tree from which I commanded you saying, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed be the ground for your sake; with toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life”, the last phrase “with toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life” is, in my view, the formulation of what we call today The Second Law of Thermodynamics, the meaning of which is that it is not possible to reduce the entropy of the system, to obtain information without work. Actually, Man was punished by work.

Once, Albert Einstein was asked about which laws of physics will hold in one hundred years’ time, his answer was “The Second Law of Thermodynamics”. The same was the position of Arthur Eddington, who said “The law that entropy always increases – The Second Law of Thermodynamics – holds, I think the supreme position among the laws of nature”.

5. “PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES”

5.1. Our Universe is a part of the Information Space hence an open system.

5.2. Time is irreversible, absolute time is determined by the ebb and flow of the information pulses which transpire the Information Space.

5.3. Every entity (concept) of our Universe belongs to hierarchy of the corresponding concepts of all the parts of info space.

Creation from Nothing (ex nihilo)

The idea of the Creation from Nothing was proposed by Christian thinkers and Jewish sage and philosopher Saadia Gaon.

Shyfrin considers that the idea of the Creation from Nothing is lacking in explanatory power and it creates more questions than answers. The main issue is that the relationship between Ein Sof (G-d is His Essence) and Nothing is unclear. Shyfrin poses the questions: “Was Nothing created by Ein Sof?”, “Can Nothing be created?”.

Besides, the idea of Creation from Nothing is a direct contradiction with the accounts of the Creation given in the Lurianic Kabbalah and in Sefer Yetzirah. According to the former, everything was made out of the Supernal Light, according to the latter everything was made out of letters and numbers.

Tzimtzum

Shyfrin begins his analysis with a general definition of information (GDI). It says that Information is “data plus meaning”. The data is defined as – lack of uniformity, or discernible physical states or discernible symbols. In the account of Tzimtzum, the Eternal Light of Ein Sof (Ohr Ein Sof) is described as absolutely unified, homogenous, without beginning or end. According to GDI, it doesn’t contain any data, but Shyfrin states that it still carries information about its uniformity, hence the information is irreducible.

Shyfrin designates the Eternal Light as General Information which represents the highest absolute degree of uncertainty (Shannon’s entropy) in Creation. Any Information with data, expressed in numbers and letters, is called Structural Information. During the process of Tzimtzum, Structural Information was created out of General Information. The creation of Structural Information was accompanied by the huge reduction of Shannon’s entropy, which required the action of finite Force also expressed in letters and numbers. Here Shyfrin employs the principle of circularity put forward by John Archibald Wheeler: “No infinite regress but circularity”, G-d created letters and numbers by applying force, G-d created Force by applying letters and numbers.

Information Space

In the Kabbalah of Information, the traditional kabbalistic presentation of Creation as a succession of world is replaced by Information Space divided by zones.

Information Space is made of concepts of different complexity (meaning) and dimensionality, expressed in letters and numbers. A chain of concepts constitutes an event. The zones of Information Space differ in complexity, dimensionality, architecture, purpose.

Information Space is populated by concepts, souls, angels, bodies which are also information entities.

Shyfrin categorises concepts into pure and mixed. The example of pure concept is absolute punishment without any elements of mercy, the example of mixed concept is punishment with some elements of mercy. The important principle of the Kabbalah of Information is that pure concepts possess the maximum power of information change.

1. Sefirot

In the traditional Kabbalah, the Sefirah is defined like a vessel filled with Light, in the Kabbalah of Information Sefirah is defined as a concept or as a family of similar concepts to which Light (Force) is applied.

By analogy with the notion of mass in physics, Shyfrin attaches the notion of mass to Sefirah (concept). Like in physics, mass is a certain number which characterises the resistance to Force or the ability to generate Force (gravity), Shyfrin considers the mass of the Sefirah (concept) as proportionate to the power of the information change. From that point of view, pure concept has maximum mass.

The Light (Force) is categorised into – creative, supportive and providential. The Light (Force) applied to a certain concept is proportionate to its mass, consequently the maximum Light (Force) applies to the pure concept.

2. The laws of Information Space

Kabbalah of Information posits three notions of distance in Information Space:

1. Numerical distance.
2. The distance between the concepts within the one and the same information zone and between the concepts that belong to the different information zones. This notion of distance is determined by the difference in meaning and the law of correspondence. Shyfrin put forward the Law of Correspondence – each concept of the highest complexity has a finite number of corresponding concepts in the hierarchy of diminishing complexity. The distance between the concepts which belong to the same hierarchy is zero in certain dimensions.
3. The distance between dynamic information entities and concepts, or other dynamic information entities, it is determined by the difference in meaning and by structural likeness.

Structural likeness determines the similarity between mathematical (information) structures. Shyfrin gives an example of mathematical likeness between Noah’s Arc, Arc of Covenant, Altar which was installed in front of the Tent of Meeting and the structure of the Tree of Sefirot (concepts).

According to Kabbalah of Information the Soul is an information entity made of concepts. Structurally, the Soul is similar to the Tree of Sefirot but it has an additional dimension of Self. Soul is a dynamic information entity, it can move in the Information Space, the movement is understood as the change of information content of the Soul, for example the Soul can move between the concepts of Good and Evil and between the concepts of different complexity in the process of learning.

Information Worlds

Shyfrin analyses each Information Zone which corresponds to the notion of world in the traditional Kabbalah from the point of view of its information architecture and purpose.

1. Tzimtzum

The purpose is to allow for Creation to come into being, to provide the building blocks of Creation – letters, numbers and force in the form of Structural Information.

2. Adam Kadmon

Adam Kadmon (Primordial Adam) is the idea of Man without Self, the governing idea of Creation. It determines the purpose and meaning of Creation.

3. Akudim

According to traditional Kabbalah, Akudim is presented like a vessel which contained all the Sefirot. According to the Kabbalah of Information, Akudim is the zone of Information Space made of one concept which included all other concepts that were used in the process of emanation and creation of the other zones of Information Space and Man with Self. This concept has maximum dimensionality and complexity in the Creation.

4. Nekudim (Tohu)

Information architecture – Ten Pure Concepts which didn’t interact with each other. These concepts form the basis of Information Space since all other (mixed) concepts are the combinations of the pure concepts. This Information Zone is characterised by the “maximum mass” of the concepts, low information entropy and maximum force (Light).

The events made of Pure Concepts represent unbalanced Divine Providence of maximum force. Shyfrin refers to the Deluge, killing of the firstborns in Egypt, destruction of Sodom and Gomorra.

4.1 The breaking of the vessels

One of the central tenets of Lurianic Kabbalah is the breaking of the vessels of the world of Tohu. In brief, the vessels of the Tohu couldn’t contain the strong Light and were broken. As a result, 288 shards which contained the sparks of light fell into the lower worlds and created the zone of Kelipot.

According to the Kabbalah of Information the breaking of the vessels is described as an emanation of the Pure Concepts similar by their meaning to the Pure Concepts of the world of Tohu, nut of smaller complexity and smaller power of information change.

Shyfrin introduces the dimension of the evolution of the human Soul, which is determined by the extremities – Self subordinated to G-d and Self independent from G-d, represented in the Torah by the Tree of Life and by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The zone of Kelipot is presented as a family of concepts adjacent to the concept Self independent from G-d.

5. The world of Atzilut

Shyfrin outlines the main differences between the world of Atzilut and the world of Tohu:

5.1. The world of Tohu has ten Pure Concepts, the world of Atzilut contains a huge number of Mixed Concepts in the form of fractals.

5.2. The Sefirah in the world of Tohu is represented by one Pure Concept, the Sefirah in the world of Atzilut is represented by the family of concepts with the same General Meaning but different Particular Meaning.

5.3. The world of Tohu is a scarcely populated zone of Information Space, the world of Atzilut, on the contrary, is a densely populated zone of Information Space, consequently the number of possible combinations of concepts of the world of Atzilut is enormously higher than the world of Tohu.

6. The error threshold

Shyfrin explains the mechanism of the transition from one Sefirah to another in the world of Atzilut. The criterion of the transition is the change in the General Meaning. Shyfrin draws an analogy with Information Genetics.

Manfred Eigen in his book explains the phenomenon of the error threshold. He gives an example of the sequence consisting of a limited number of monomers which represents a certain basic species. In the process of reproduction some errors take place, but still the sequence carries the information properties of the basic sequence. When the number of errors accumulates, at a certain point called the error threshold the information of the basic sequence collapses, and the new information appears.

According to the Kabbalah of Information, certain small changes of the sequence of letters and numbers change the Particular Meaning of the concepts but preserves their General Meaning. When the amount of change reaches the error threshold, we observe the jump from one General Meaning to another, i.e. the transition between Sefirot.

7. The synthesis of the Soul

Shyfrin draws parallels between the structure of the Soul made of concepts and the structure of proteins represented by different combinations of amino acids. In case of proteins the synthesis is the process which is called translation and is determined by the genetic code. Shyfrin considers the process of the creation of the Soul as distantly similar to the process of the creation of proteins, but in case of the creation of the Soul amino acids are replaced by concepts. Shyfrin mentions that the analogy is approximate since the Soul can move in the Information Space and to a certain extent the Soul can change its information content.

Evil in Information Space

Shyfrin points out to the absence of the precise definition of the notion of Evil in science and philosophy, and put forward his definition:

• Evil is constituted by the transgression of at least one of the 613 commandments of the Torah.
• There are no Evil acts that don’t involve the transgression of at least one of the 613 commandments of the Torah.

Shyfrin provides the proof based on the reductio ad absurdum as follows:

If you assume there exist Evil deeds or acts unrelated to the transgression of any commandments of the Torah, we would infer that the list of commandments is incomplete and by giving us commandments G-d failed in the task of restraining us from actualising Evil, which is an absurdity.

In the traditional Kabbalah, Evil is represented by the notion of Other Side (Sitra Ahera) and by the notion of Kelipot. The difference between the Other Side and Kelipot is unclear. Many kabbalists consider these two notions synonyms.

According to the Kabbalah of Information, the concepts of the violation of the commandments of the Torah are represented in the Information Space by the concepts of “anti-commandments”, which are formed by adding the information command “don’t”:

• The positive commandment “do something”, anti- commandment “don’t do something”.
• The negative commandment “don’t do something”, anti-commandment “don’t don’t do something”.

1. Blessing and curse

Shyfrin states that blessing and curse are one and the same information concepts that differ by the positive – negative direction in Information Space. In case of blessing, Divine Providence is based on the commandments of the Torah, in case of curse, Divine Providence is based on the anti-commandments.

Miracles

According to Kabbalah of Information, Miracles don’t violate the Laws of Nature. Shyfrin based this thesis on the statement that we don’t know all the Laws of Nature, the Laws of Nature are mutable and finally the Laws of Nature were established by G-d, and the violation by G-d of the order established by Himself is in contradiction with the principle “G-d is perfect, He doesn’t do unnecessary work”.

Shyfrin denies the probabilistic nature of Miracles, on the ground that low probability events happen randomly, at the same time Miracles happened at the right place, at the right time and Miracles had a purpose.

According to Kabbalah of Information, Miracles are events caused by G-d in the right place, in the right time, on purpose, Miracles are the result of the huge local increase in the amount of information processed compared to the amount of information, processed before and after miracles.

Shyfrin provides as an example the famous thought experiment proposed by James Clerk Maxwell in 1867.

Maxwell imagined a container divided into two parts: A and B. Both parts are filled with the same gas at equal temperatures. Observing the molecules on both sides, an imaginary demon guards a trapdoor between the two parts. When faster–than–average molecule from A flies towards the trapdoor, the demon opens it, and the molecule will fly from A to B. Likewise, when a slower-than-average molecule from B flies towards the trapdoor, the demon will let it pass from B to A. The average speed of molecules in B will have increased, while in A they will have slowed down on average. Since the average molecular speed corresponds to the temperature, the temperature decreases in A and increases in B, contrary to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

One of the explanations of Maxwell’s thought experiment is that the demon, in order to separate the molecules of lower and higher speed, must process a significant amount of information and perform measurements, as a result the entropy of the demon increases and the entropy of the whole system doesn’t decrease.

Platonism vs Nominalism in mathematics

In brief, Platonisms state that mathematical ideas are concepts, they exist and we just discover them. Nominalisms state that we invent mathematical ideas. Both schools of thought have problems and difficulties.

Platonists cannot provide the answer to the question: “Where do mathematical ideas and concepts exist and how can we grasp them?”. Nominalists cannot provide the answer to the question: “Why is mathematics, as Eugene Wigner put it, so unreasonably effective?”

According to the Kabbalah of Information, numbers and letters and force (change) are the basic-blocks of the information space of Creation. Everything is made out of them, consequently all the possible mathematical concepts exist in the Information Space, and we can just discover them. Hence the same of King Salomon (Ecclesiastes): “There is nothing new beneath the Sun”.

References

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