Information Carries
Weight
Janet Kuypers
8/23/22
Dateline: physics...
A new experiment could confirm
A fifth state of matter in the universe,
Alongside solid, liquid, gas and plasma.
If this is true,
It could upend
What we think of as
What could carry weight.
Physicist Dr. Melvin Vopson has already
Published research suggesting that
Information has mass and that all
Elementary particles store information —
DNA for humans does this too,
But if this is true —
Everything stores information, and
Information carries weight.
If you think this is a joke, then take this
With a 50-pound block of salt:
Hard drives with information on them
Weigh more than empty hard drives.
If information were a 5th state of matter,
It would change physics as we know it:
Expanding our understanding of the Universe,
all while in harmony with the laws of physics.
“It doesn’t contradict quantum mechanics,
Electrodynamics, thermodynamics or
Classical mechanics — it ... [actually]
Complements physics,” said Dr. Vopson,
Not unlike a poem.
Dr. Vopson even postulates that if information
Is the 5th state of matter — it may even
Explain the “dark matter” we keep
Guessing about but cannot see.
Latest scientific papers outline
How to put these theories to the test:
To detect and measure the information
In elementary particles, by annihilating them —
Energy would turn into gamma photons,
Particles containing information would
Convert into low-energy infrared photons...
So, these infrared photons would emerge
After erasing information.
If this is true, maybe information
Is a fundamental building block
Of our Universe. So maybe it’s true
That all the information we ever knew —
From the genocide of millions to
Destroying dictators; or building bridges
To traversing skyscrapers, all that,
With... learning the fluidity of dance,
Listening to music, studying art,
Reading and writing poetry —
Maybe it all melds with the histories
Taught in schools, or the Periodic Table
We memorized in class and thought
We’d never have a need for. Maybe all that
Physics is stuck in the backs of our
Brains, to make us stronger... or to
Give us the weight we need
When facing new challenges
Accosting our rights. When
People try to push us backward,
Maybe this information gives us
Our tools to fight ignorance, until
We can move forward again. We
Never thought we needed all that
Information, but we didn’t realize:
Information carries weight,
And... that information may be the
Most fundamental force after all.
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