INFORMATION STAGE

This objection confuses information-as-concept with information-as-physical-reality. Landauer's Principle demonstrates information is physical: erasing a bit necessarily dissipates kT ln 2 energy as heat. This has been experimentally verified (Bérut et al. 2012). Black hole thermodynamics shows information is conserved and counts toward black hole entropy. The Shannon measure is not arbitrary—it uniquely satisfies axioms any reasonable information measure must satisfy (Khinchin 1957). Information's physicality is empirically established.

Correct—and [[008_A2.1_Substrate-Requirement|A2.1]] (Substrate Requirement) addresses this directly. Information requires grounding, which the [[011_D2.2_Chi-Field-Properties|chi-field]] (Logos) provides. But the substrate itself is informationally defined—it is the self-referential information structure that grounds all other information. The regress terminates in [[009_A2.2_Self-Grounding|self-grounding]] ([[009_A2.2_Self-Grounding|A2.2]]). Information is fundamental; its substrate is the self-aware information structure (consciousness/Logos).

The Chinese Room challenges computational theories of mind, not [[163_P2_Information-Stage|P2]]'s claim that information is physically fundamental. [[163_P2_Information-Stage|P2]] does not claim that information processing constitutes consciousness—[[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]] already established consciousness as co-original with existence. [[163_P2_Information-Stage|P2]] claims that information is the physical substrate, not that computation explains meaning. Meaning (semantics) comes from coherence ([[164_P3_Coherence-Stage|P3]]) and consciousness ([[162_P1_Consciousness-Stage|P1]]), not from syntax alone. The Chinese Room is compatible with [[163_P2_Information-Stage|P2]].

Two responses: (1) Continuous quantities may be limits of discrete structures—quantum mechanics discretizes energy, angular momentum, etc. The Planck scale suggests spacetime discreteness. (2) Even if spacetime is continuous, continuous structures are informationally characterizable—real numbers encode infinite information, but [[029_D4.1_Kolmogorov-Complexity|Kolmogorov complexity]] handles this. Analog information theory (differential entropy) extends Shannon's framework to continuous variables. Continuity does not escape information.

[[163_P2_Information-Stage|P2]] uses "bit" as the minimal distinction, not specifically classical bit. Quantum information theory extends classical theory—qubits are superpositions of classical bits. The distinction-making at quantum level occurs at measurement, collapsing superposition to classical outcome. [[163_P2_Information-Stage|P2]] is compatible with quantum information theory; indeed, quantum mechanics supports [[163_P2_Information-Stage|P2]] more strongly than classical physics since quantum states are inherently informational (wavefunctions are probability amplitude distributions).