The idea that absence itself carries information challenges our intuitive notion that information requires the presence of something.
In information theory, this principle is fundamental. When we expect a signal and don’t receive it, that silence is itself meaningful data. A missing heartbeat on a monitor, a dog that doesn’t bark in the night, an expected email that never arrives - these absences communicate just as powerfully as their presence would.
This connects to the concept of negative space in art and design, where what’s left out defines what’s included. The pause between musical notes gives rhythm its meaning. In linguistics, what we choose not to say often speaks as loudly as our words.
From a computational perspective, the absence of expected data can trigger error states, indicate completion, or signal transitions between system states. Even in quantum mechanics, the absence of particles in certain regions provides information about field configurations and energy states.
The philosophical implications run deeper - absence as information suggests that reality is defined as much by what isn’t there as by what is. It’s a reminder that information isn’t just about positive signals but about the entire context of expectations, patterns, and deviations from them.
Anthropics’ Claude
prompt: Absence is information