Information, in physics, is a measure of uncertainty, correlation, or constraint. At its core, it is epistemic: it tells us about the structure of possibilities, not about a thing that exists in the world. Yet physics often treats information as if it were ontologically real — a kind of “stuff” that is stored, transmitted, or even conserved.
This is the distortion: a measure of knowledge recast as an element of being.
The Physics Move
In quantum information theory, “qubits” are described as carriers of information, sometimes ontologically treated as real entities with causal power.
Discussions of black hole entropy frame information as a conserved substance — leading to the famous “information paradox.”
Thermodynamic and computational interpretations often conflate informational bookkeeping with physical existence, implying that reality itself is made of information.
Why This Distorts Ontology
Information is relational and perspectival. It does not exist independently of observers, measurement contexts, or system constraints. Treating it as a “thing” creates an epistemic reversal: what is a descriptor of knowledge is promoted to a constituent of reality.
The distortion lies in substituting epistemology for ontology: the world is misrepresented as information, rather than described by it.
The Relational Reframing
From a relational standpoint:
Information reflects the structure of possibilities and their actualisation, not a substance or causal agent.
The “flow” or “storage” of information is shorthand for relational changes, not a transfer of ontic particles.
Black hole entropy, computation, and quantum correlations are intelligible once we treat information as relational bookkeeping, not as reality itself.
Thus, information is intelligible — but only as a lens on relational dynamics, not as a fundamental component of being.
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