Abstract
In a conference talk in 1989, John Archibald Wheeler suggested that 'every physical quantity, every it, derives its ultimate significance from bits, binary yes-or-no indications, a conclusion which we epitomize in the phrase, it from bit.' Several authors, before and after Wheeler, have pursued similar ideas. However, no practical realisation of Wheeler's agenda within a realistic physical framework has emerged. Using the example of Wheeler's agenda, I pursue the question of what is fundamental in physics.
Walter Smilga