›The Information Universe

The main ambition of this conference is to explore the question “What is the role of information in the physics of our Universe?“. This intellectual pursuit may have a key role in improving our understanding of the Universe at a time when we “build technology to acquire and manage Big Data“, “discover highly organized information systems in nature“ and “attempt to solve outstanding issues on the role of information in physics“. The conference intends to address the “in vivo“ (role of information in nature) and “in vitro“ (theory and models) aspects of the Information Universe.

The discussions about the role of information will include the views and thoughts of several disciplines: astronomy, physics, computer science, mathematics, life sciences, quantum computing, and neuroscience. Different scientific communities hold various and sometimes distinct formulations of the role of information in the Universe indicating we still lack understanding of its intrinsic nature. During this conference we will try to identify the right questions, which may lead us towards an answer.

- Is the universe one big information processing machine?
- Is there a deeper layer in quantum mechanics?
- Is the universe a hologram?
- Is there a deeper physical description of the world based on information?
- How close/far are we from solving the black hole information paradox?
- What is the role of information in highly organized complex life systems?
- The Big Data Universe and the Universe : are our numerical simulations and Big Data repositories (in vitro) different from real natural system (in vivo)?
- Is this the road to understanding dark matter, dark energy?

The conference will be held in the new 260 seats planetarium theatre in Groningen, which provides an inspiring immersive 3D full dome display, e.g. numerical simulations of the formation of our Universe, and anything else our presenters wish to bring in. The digital planetarium setting will be used to visualize the theme with modern media.