Abstract
The appearance of informational ideas across the natural sciences is highly suggestive. This essay argues that the conceptual dichotomy between fundamental physics and the emergence of intelligent life will be reconciled in a framework underpinned by physical information. Case studies from foundational physics to non-equilibrium thermodynamics and the origin of biology to consciousness draw from recent advances in the literature. By systematically synthesizing the rich phenomenological roles of information, we pinpoint a series of informational phase transitions that engendered life and high-level cognition. Natural language emerged as an additional channel of information transfer on top of genetics, allowing agents to plan from ancestral experience unencumbered by neural memory or lifespan.
Sonali Mohapatra