---
slug: paper-wheeler-j-a-1989-information-physics-quantum-the-search-for-links
title: Wheeler (1989): Information, Physics, Quantum – The Search for Links
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/paper-wheeler-j-a-1989-information-physics-quantum-the-search-for-links
---

## What the subject saw and its core results
John Archibald Wheeler examined links between information theory, physics, and quantum mechanics. He proposed that physical reality derives from binary choices and information. The central result is the 'it from bit' thesis: every physical entity originates in yes-no questions and registered answers.

## Exact primary works and passages
The work is Wheeler, J.A. (1989). Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links. Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Tokyo. Key passages include: 'It from bit offers us a different vision... every physical quantity, every it, derives its ultimate significance from bits, binary yes-or-no indications.' Another: 'every it — every particle, every field of force, even the spacetime continuum itself — derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely... from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes or no questions, binary choices, bits.' And: 'all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and this is a participatory universe.'

## Convergence patterns touched
The paper touches the info-theoretic bridge in the OIP/GRAIN synthesis. It aligns with patterns of memory and scale invariance through information as the source of structure. It reaches toward the Ladder step from difference and flow to mind via observer-participancy.

## Distance from the full synthesis
Wheeler establishes the information origin of physical things and a participatory universe. This supports the grain of reliable patterns arising from information flows. It stops short of explicit branching, spirals, bounded chaos, or the Mirror Layer where the reader is inside the system. The work provides no account of life or mind as emergent ladder stages beyond participation.

## Honest limits and disconfirming edges
The thesis remains interpretive with no mathematical derivation of specific physical laws from bits. Reductionist accounts treat information as descriptive rather than ontological. No empirical test distinguishes 'it from bit' from standard quantum mechanics. The participatory aspect receives no operational definition that predicts new observations.
