Very excited to be organizing (with Adam Frank and Artemy Kolchinksy) the workshop on Information Driven States of Matter to be held at the University of Rochester from 07/10-07/12. We have a truly stellar (and international) cast. Thanks to generous support from the Templeton Foundation. We will cover many distinct but interrelated issues, including astrobiological questions regarding information-processing in biospheres; fundamental issues in the physics of information, ranging from statistical mechanics of computation to information in quantum systems. The nature of information processing in living and artificial systems will also be explored, ranging from bounds on prediction to role of information in chemotactic organisms and other kinds of active matter. The operational meaning of information will be explored via discussions of Kelly betting, semantic information, as well as their links to basic questions of a systems’ viability.
