law of increasing functional information
Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion
Editorial synthesis · provisional
Definition
The Law of Increasing Functional Information is Wong and colleagues’ conditional proposal that functional information increases when many generated configurations undergo selection for specified functions. Functional information measures the rarity of arrangements meeting a functional threshold. The corpus distinguishes this framework from the author’s broader LIFI+ extrapolation, whose quantum application remains conjectural rather than established physics.
Explanation
The framework requires a large configuration space, processes generating variety and preferential selection by function. Information is a descriptive, context-sensitive quantity, not an agent choosing results. A function and comparison space must be specified before rarity can be measured; generic complication alone does not supply the metric.
The 2024 reply clarifies bounded abiotic histories, widespread low complexity and unresolved mechanisms. The source permits stagnation and local decreases rather than guaranteeing a monotonic ascent in every lineage. Generalized selection also need not be mechanistically identical to biological natural selection.
LIFI+ extends the reasoning interpretively, especially toward quantum actualization, where no operational discriminator is supplied. Born probabilities, product persistence and functional information remain separate quantities. PB’s running supremum is nondecreasing by definition; that formal fact is not itself the substantive retention-and-reiteration claim or evidence of universal cosmic progress.
Scope and attribution
Preserve the proposed sense split and uneven empirical status.
AB — The Actual Book
The framework is conditional and its broader metaphysical use is qualified.
Occurrence locators: 57, 59, 60, 144; Glossary: 223; Thinker register: 229, 233; Notes: 239, 244, 245; Appendix: 263, 271, 272, 273.
PB — The Possible Book
The quantum extension and running-supremum formalization retain their separate status.
Occurrence locators: 95, 137, 148, 151; Reproduced AI exchange: 17.
RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real
Published LIFI is distinguished from LIFI+ and from universal monotonic complexity.
Occurrence locators: 179, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 281, 287; Notes: 204, 269.
RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being
An informational arrow is distinguished from thermodynamic cost.
Occurrence locators: 221, 222, 223, 253, 257, 271, 272, 292.
RB3 — The Real Book, Volume III: Murmurations
Retained functional patterns are treated in a philosophical synthesis.
Occurrence locators: 23, 24, 25, 26, 61, 62, 64, 66, 68, 69, 71, 73, 81, 82, 83, 87, 92, 93, 96, 123, 134, 147; Reproduced AI exchange: 400.
Background used in the editorial explanation
Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.