That’s damn impressive.

I would like to bring up a small point about the five trees that have been so discussed. Does a physical object’s information need to be duplicated in order to be proven to exist? I mean a tree standing alone on an island is its own physical record of itself. Or am I wrong? A person observing the tree and writing down “tree” on a piece of paper does not make the tree any more or less a piece of reality. The information of their existence is represented IN their existence. Information is not the singular result of observation, sound, or smell. Information has several definitions (I am looking at one part of what information is for the sake of this argument, please do not bring up how information is also a service on your telephone), and one is along the lines of “facts provided or learned about something or someone.” The tree is providing information of its existence by existing, of its location by being where it is, and it even tells you it grows fruit because it grows that fruit. I would argue that existence itself is the medium upon which all information is accessible/recorded for life forms (such as humans) who use existence as their frame of reference.

A quick example is sound. Sounds cannot be accurately recorded in any medium other than sound. What sound is this? “ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ” is that the sound of a sleeping person, an alarm, a fly passing your ear? Yes, we have CDs and Vinyl as examples of recorded music. But without the use of a device to play these items we cannot look at the object and know what the sound recorded is without prior knowledge. The sound itself can only be received as information by an individual (a human) if it is transmitted as a sound.

We do not currently have the information about how to transplant a human brain from one body into another and people believe that it is an impossible task. If we learned to do it 50 years from now then the information would exist in a physical form (most likely written). But does that mean the information does not exist today? Or does it simply mean that the information exists and we just have yet to either discover it or to properly comprehend it? I really don’t know, all of this is based on my personal thoughts and experiences and is not an attack on anyone or idea, but it is fun to think about.

Also, this also marks my moment of finishing the site up to its current point. From article #361 all the way back to announcement #1. Unlike when finishing a book I feel great because this site is alive and growing and I look forward to reading it regularly (as regularly as the articles appear) for many more years. Thanks to Alan Bellows and all the other writers, admins and people who use the comments to continue to make me think.

o 3o Awesome site, I think I might just have to reread some of the content for lulz. Thanks for making work fun, Allen! <3