Bridging Science and Spirit: The Genius of William A. Tiller's Physics and the Promise of Information Medicine

by Nisha J. Manek MD

The famous Boltzmann equation is S = k log(W).

Here S is the thermodynamic entropy and W represents the number of ways the individ...

(such as a gas or jasmine molecules) can arrange themselves. If we...

As long as there is an energy gradient, energy flows from

a high level to low, doing work. The energy difference or “disequilibrium” powers all processes: Winds blow, rivers flow, the mantle convects, continents drift, and life grows. The Earth is in a state of constant disequilibrium.

Boltzmann was the first scientist to note the role of photosynthesis in decreasing entropy and bringing order to living matter.

Energy is thereby stored in the form of a charge separation and coupled to ATP production. These tiny ionic cell factories convert chemical energy into mechanical work with almost 100 percent efficiency.

Coupled with energy flow, our cells manage not to fall apart because they continually increase the entropy around them to increase the order within them.

What makes the world go round are not sources of energy but sources of low entropy.

how do you say “life” in physics?128

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics is a relatively new and hot field of physics.

Dissipation

further results in a process that goes forward, along the “arrow of time.”130 Heat and time are bound together in an intricate dance, and the dissipation of heat is what stops time from going backward.

dissipation of heat—entropy—is the price we pay for the arrow of time.

atoms organize into molecules, which in turn organize themselves into structures that take in energy and dissipate it as heat.

Life is inherently an out-of-equilibrium phenomenon,

“The most fundamental aspect of the universe and reality is information. It’s more fundamental than matter or energy. Information is the gateway and bridge to understanding ourselves.” A Playful Mind: Claude Elwood Shannon (1916–2001)

In everyday parlance, information is frequently synonymous with knowledge.

Shannon was concerned with communicating the microstate of a system, such as the arrangement of letters. He equated information with entropy.

In Boltzmann’s formula, entropy refers to an average of physical states (such as temperature), and in Shannon’s formula, information refers to a particular physical state (such as the specific sentence, “I love you.”).134

Information comes in discrete units, one bit at a time.

Shannon’s momentous question—How much does it cost to communicate?—showed that information, rather than being an abstract notion, is entirely a physical quantity.

Knowledge costs.

The crux of this scientific argument is that you cannot get something for nothing, not even information. Energy must be expended in learning about the state of a system, and gaining information increases entropy.

The amount of certainty or information we have in determining a jasmine molecule’s location corresponds to its entropy level, with less uncertainty corresponding to lower entropy.

Therefore, reduction in uncertainty represents an increase in information; that is, a decrease of entropy corresponds to an increase in our actual knowledge about a jasmine molecule.

Brillouin established a new term for negative entropy, “negentropy.” So, neg...

The observer is always inextricably linked to the system.

We create order, we create negentropy with information.

Tiller often says: “The

second law has terms that can be discriminated by today’s scientific tools: pressure, volume, internal en...

Erwin Schrödinger suggested that in addition to displaying the energy content of food (calories), its negative entropy potential—the degree to which the composition of the food allows us to combat entropy—should also be displayed.143

you could eat chocolate bars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but you’d be missing crucial nutritional information required to keep your body in a highly ordered or low entropy state.144

All this suggests the best foods are those that give a specified high energy value with the lowest entropy increase in the body. Food’s entropy value is correlated to its completeness, in terms of the range of nutrients, as well as the bioavailability

of the nutrients. This is the concept of a balanced diet.

“Miracles” don’t necessarily defy the laws of nature. They’re a bit less grandiose than that—instead, a miracle is a phenomenon that was previously considered unimaginable. Witnesses to that miracle are called upon to reframe their assumptions and resolve contradictions. In short, they must start to think about their world in a new light. William A. Tiller147

The protocol, if successful, would provide the data to close the gap between intention and its material physical outcomes.

Tiller selected the first target material to test his intention: water. If there is “magic” on this planet, it is contained in water.148

The clue to some of water’s strange behavior resides in the weak hydrogen bonds and the van der Waals bonds between water molecules.

A materials science concept known as “epitaxy,” the ability of an existing crystalline structure to control the

Tiller knows that water structure can change properties vastly more easily and dramatically than by chemical reaction alone. In effect, Tiller expands the language of water beyond the language of chemistry, freely revising his information creation and rewriting it if necessary until it feels right.151

The most important part of the process is that the intention is written down.

Tiller’s action of writing says something about the relationship between intention—a creative aspect—and the physical act of writing.

Could an object, such as a simple machine, be a stable repository of subtle energy intention information? “We had to have a way to objectify human intention,”

If we can successfully stably imprint

a device, meaning it would hold the intention information without leaking away, it would be a game-changer.”

An apparatus imprinted with human intention was “activated” with subtle energy to a metastable state “excited” above equilibrium.153 Such a metastable device, Tiller reasoned, could be used, like a laser, to send out information to the intended target, continuously, without interruption.

Over time, the device would slowly run back down to equilibrium.

Tiller moved to the next problem: the imprinting process. The first experiments at Stanford University were

conducted in his physics lab, a place brimming with meters and gauges and all manner of equipment. Tiller, however, saw the space through uncommon eyes. He saw intention turn the lab into a space that would drink in subtle energies, like a parched sponge.