Kabbalah of Information
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The Kabbalah of Information is a theory of the Jewish mystical teachings of Kabbalah developed by Eduard Shyfrin a PhD in physical chemistry, businessman and philanthropist. The main tenet of the teaching is based on a re-phrasing of the first verse of the Bible, "In the beginning the Lord created the heaven and the earth. The Kabbalah of Information rephrases this verse as: “In the beginning He created information." This is based on the famous saying of Nachmanides: “In the beginning He created primordial matter and He didn’t create anything else, just shaped it and formed it.”
Shyfrin published his ideas in the 2018 book From Infinity to Man – Basic Ideas of Kabbalah in Terms of Information Theory and Quantum Physics..[1] A second book is planned. Some of the ideas are also presented in his 2019 award-winning children's book Travels with Sushi in the Land of the Mind
The Kabbalah of Information is based on the foundational Kabbalistic works Sefer Yetzira, Sefer HaBahir, the Zohar, the works of Rabbi Joseph Gicatillo, Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (Nahmanides), Rabbi Isaac Luria (known as ‘Ha-Ari Ha-Kadosh, or the Holy Ari), Rabbi Moses Cordovero, and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyadi (founder of the Chabad movement). Its scientific component is based on the ideas of Claude Shannon, John Archibald Wheeler, John Worrall, Manfred Eigen, Richard Humming, and others.
In addition to his book, Shyfrin has published his theories in the Jerusalem Post[2], Times of Israel[3] and Chabad.org[4]
Main tenets of the Kabbalah of Information[edit]
1. Tzimtzum — According to Lurianic Kabbalah, the “contraction” of Ein Sof and the subsequent emanation of the ray of light occurred with the purpose of making space for Creation. The Kabbalah of Information considers Tzimtzum as a huge leap from absolute uncertainty about Ein Sof to certainty, and hence the creation of information and a dramatic reduction in information entropy (a notion introduced by Claude Shannon).
2. Information is the basic building block of Creation. Therefore, on the fundamental level there is no difference between the spiritual and the material.
3. Creation is an informational space. Its static part is represented by concepts, and its dynamic part by informational pulsations (“ratzo ve shov” in Kabbalistic terminology).
4. Governing laws:
4.1. Law of Likeness: the distance between concepts in informational space is determined by the likeness of their meanings and complexity.
4.2. Law of Dimensionality: the dimensionality of an informational structure cannot exceed the dimensionality of the corresponding part of the informational space.
4.3. Law of Correspondence: each concept exists in a hierarchy of more complex concepts of similar meaning.
5. The Sefirot. According to the Kabbalah, the Tree of Sefirot is the basic structure of Creation. There are ten Sefirot: Keter — will; Hochma — wisdom; Bina — understanding; Chesed — loving kindness and expansion; Gevura — might, judgement, and contraction; Tiferet — beauty; Netzah — victory; Hod — splendor; Yesod — foundation; and Malchut — kindgom;
The Kabbalah of Information defines the Sefirot as a concept or family of concepts in the informational space. The transition from one Sefira to another occurs via an error threshold — a small change in the representation of the concepts that causes a radical change in their meaning. In evolutionary biology and genetics, the error threshold is a limit on the number of base pairs a self-replicating molecule can have before mutation destroys the information in subsequent generations of the molecule.
6. The Worlds. According to the Kabbalah, Creation comprises eight worlds: Tzimtzum, Adam Kadmon, Akudim, Tohu, Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzira, and Asiya, which is our world. The Kabbalah of Information considers the worlds as a hierarchy of information space areas with different dimensionality and complexity of concepts. The MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory defines an information space as “a type of information design in which representations of information objects are situated in a principled space. In a principled space location and direction have meaning, so that mapping and navigation become possible” The transition from one world to another is analogous to phase transition and is accompanied by a reduction in informational entropy, reduction in the number of degrees of freedom, and a reduction in concept complexity. The term ‘phase transition’ is used in chemistry, thermodynamics, and other fields, and refers to a change in state from one phase to another. Its defining characteristic is the abrupt change in one or more physical properties with an infinitesimal change in temperature.
7. Theory of Evil. In modern philosophy, there is no precise definition of evil. The Kabbalah of Information defines evil in the following ways: first, evil is a violation of any of the 613 commandments of the Torah. Second, there is no evil unrelated to the violation of the 613 commandments of the Torah. The latter is proven ad absurdum: if there is evil unrelated to the violation of one of the 613 commandments of the Torah, that means that the system of commandments is incomplete and G-d is not perfect, which is absurd.
In the informational space, evil is represented as a mirror zone with regards to the concepts of the commandments: e.g. “do”—”don’t do”, “don’t do”—”don’t don’t do”; in the Kabbalistic terminology, the “other side” (sitra ahara).
8. The Breaking of the Vessels. In Lurianic Kabbalah, the breaking of the vessels (Shevirat HaKeilim) is described as the decay of the vessels of the sefirot of the world ‘Tohu’ under the influence of strong Divine Light. The sefirot decayed into shards, each containing a spark of the Divine Light. The shards “descended” into the worlds of Creation, forming the kelipot (shells or peels) —the source of evil. There is no clear distinction between the kelipot and the “other side” (“Sitra Achra), which is the side of impurity, in the Kabbalah.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Lyadi wrote that the shards with sparks of the Divine Light inside were the seeds of everything that has a self. According to the Kabbalah of Information, this means that the kelipot represent extreme self in the “G-d—self” dimension in information space. From that we can infer that the kelipot are what cause man to do evil. In the world of Tohu (“the world of dots” according to the Kabbalah), each Sefira was represented by one concept, and transition between them was impossible because the distance between them in the information space was maximal. The structure of the world Tohu was fixed in a unique state, which means its information entropy was equal to zero. Such a structure was extremely unstable, and as a result the world of Tohu collapsed. In subsequent worlds, the Sefirot were represented as families of concepts, which provided smooth transitions from one Sefira to another through incremental changes in meaning and an error threshold. The informational entropy of these worlds was very high.
9. The Soul. According to the Kabbalah of Information, the soul is an informational self-learning structure similar to the Tree of Sefirot with self-awareness and partial freedom of choice. Since the soul and the body are both made of information, interaction between them doesn’t require physicalist or dualist models. (The dualist view contends that people are bodies and souls. The physicalist approach posits that there are no souls, or immaterial objects). According to the Kabbalah of Informaiton, the soul interacts directly with the Tree of Sefirot on one side and with the body on the other.
10. Sin is a violation of any of the commandments of the Torah. As a result of sin, the soul connects with the zone of anti-commandments in the information space (“the other side”). That entails the loss of likeness to the Tree of Sefirot and an increase in the distance in the information space between it and the soul. As a result, the soul interacts with Ein Sof through the zone of anti-commandments (“the other side”).
11. A blessing is an opening of informational channels between the soul and the Tree of Sefirot.
12. A curse is an opening of informational channels between the soul and the zone of anti-commandments.
13. The Kabbalah of Information considers the exchange of information between Man and Ein Sof a key condition for the existence of Creation. Informational exchange includes the fulfillment of the commandments, the study of Torah, and prayer.
14. Life and death are considered as relative notions by the Kabbalah of Information. Life in one world is equal to death in another, and vice versa.
15. Freedom of choice. The position of the Kabbalah of Information is that Man has freedom of choice but not in every dimension. Freedom of choice can be restricted or even blocked within the frame of G-d’s plan. Human agency is not entirely determined by the physical laws of our universe.
Kabbalah of Information and Science[edit]
The principal differences between the approach of the Kabbalah of Information and the scientific method are the following:
1. The Kabbalah of Information considers our universe as a part of the entire informational space of Creation, i.e. our universe is an open system.
2. Modern science considers the interactions between different entities of our universe through the four forces: gravity, electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear forces. In addition to these interactions, the Kabbalah of Information considers the force which brought the entities of our universe into existence and supports it. In addition, the Kabbalah of Information considers the interactions of the entities of our universe with their informational prototypes in the hierarchy of concepts (see “The Law of Correspondence” above).
Positions of the Kabbalah of Information on specific scientific issues[edit]
1. The Kabbalah of Information takes the position of information structural realism. The theory of structural realism was developed by John Worrall. Similar ideas were shared by Henri Poincaré, Arthur Eddington, Max Born, John Archibald Wheeler and many other prominent scientists. Structural realism takes the view that scientific theories can only explain the form or structure of the unobservable world, and not about its nature.
2. Spacetime. According to the Kabbalah of Information, time is irreversible and spacetime is discrete. The Kabbalah of Information endorses the ideas of backward causation and block universe.
3. The Kabbalah of Information denies the existence of singularity in the center of black holes on the basis of the failure of the criterion of the maximality of the spacetime of our universe. According to the theory of General Relativity, one of the conditions necessary for the existence of singularity in the center of a black hole is the maximality of our spacetime, i.e. it not being part of a bigger spacetime, while in the Kabbalah of Information the spacetime of our universe is part of the whole info information space of Creation.
4. In the philosophy of mathematics, the Kabbalah of Information supports the position of Platonism, except for the fact that Platonism posits the existence of abstract mathematical concepts which are atemporal and not spatial. The Kabbalah of Information posits that these concepts exist in the information space. All concepts, including mathematical ones, were first created by Ein Sof, and we can only discover them. We cannot create something which has not been created by Ein Sof.
5. Quantum physics. The Kabbalah of Information considers quantum mechanics as a good mathematical tool for making predictions, but not as an ontological theory (ontology analyzes concepts such as existence, being, becoming and reality). It rejects the probabilistic nature of our reality. The Kabbalah of Information endorses Psi-epistemic interpretations of quantum physics. Psi-epistemic means that the wavefunction in Schrödinger’s equation is not ontological. The positions of the Kabbalah of Information are close to those of Superdeterminism and the Quantum Bayesian interpretation. The main idea of the Kabbalah of Information with respect to quantum physics is that the interactions between entities should be considered not only within the frame of the spacetime of our universe but within that of the information space of Creation. According to the Law of Correspondence (see above), any interaction in our spacetime is accompanied by an interaction of the informational prototypes in the hierarchy of the information space. The speed of interactions between the entities of our world and their information prototypes is not limited by the speed of light. Entanglement and superdeterminism could be explained from that point of view. The Measurement Problem could also be explained through the interaction between the measured entities, the measuring device and the mind of the person setting up the experiment with their informational prototypes. In this case, the physical presence of an observer is not necessary.
6. The Kabbalah of Information endorses the participatory anthropic principle put forward by the physicist John Archibald Wheeler who said, “We are participants in bringing into being not only the near and here, but the far away and long ago.”
References[edit]
- ↑ "MBR: MBR Bookwatch, September 2019". www.midwestbookreview.com. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
- ↑ "Kabbalah meets science". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
- ↑ "Eduard Shyfrin's Blog". blogs.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
- ↑ "Eduard Shyfrin articles in Chabad.org".
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