When did Information First Appear in the Universe?

Abstract

Most scientists would assume that information has been playing a role right from the beginning—the Big Bang. As the Universe evolved, after the gradual condensation of atoms and molecules and the formation of planetary systems, “islands” of increasing complexity and organization appeared, containing discrete aggregates of condensed matter with well-defined boundaries and increasingly complex interactions with each other and their environment. Viewed this way, it indeed seems that the process of cosmic evolution itself is continuously generating information [Chaisson, 2001].

1 Abridged version of Roederer J. G., When and where did information first appear in the Universe? In Bioinformatics, J. Seckbach (ed.), Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2004