nucleation

LIT-1663: Constructor theory of information

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Properties5
StatusActive — read in full 2026-10-27 (NOTE-1219); worth reading as the cleanest statement of information as a counterfactual property of a substrate, defined from possible permutations and cloning before distinguishability, and as the derivation of quantum information's distinctive features from one prohibition on top of conjectured principles. It treats instantiating information as an intrinsic, modal property, so it gives no support to relational constitution.
Version2
Tagsquantum-foundations, information-theory
Cited as “paper” byNOTE-1219 — Deutsch & Marletto — Constructor theory of information
Cited as “source” byTHEORY-1058 — Given constructor theory's principles of locality and of classical information, a single further prohibition, that two information observables with mutually disjoint attributes have a union that is not an information observable, is enough for a medium to have information attributes that cannot be distinguished, unclonable and jointly unsharp observables, measurements that are deterministic yet unpredictable, irreducible disturbance by measurement, and locally inaccessible information; quantum information is an instance, THEORY-1066 — In constructor theory, a set of attributes is an information variable when every permutation of it and its cloning are possible tasks, and distinguishability is defined afterwards, as the possibility of mapping a variable onto an information variable; so information is fixed by counterfactual properties of a substrate without presupposing distinguishability, and instantiating it is stated as an intrinsic property of the substrate in the sense of referring to no other specific substrate, THEORY-1078 — Constructor theory puts constraint in two places: a principle is a law that constrains other laws and is tested through its rivals, and a constructor is a physical thing that keeps its ability to cause a transformation; a task is possible when the laws set no limit, short of perfection, on how well it could be performed and that ability retained, so possibility needs no actual constructor, and constructor-theoretic statements mention none

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Deutsch, D., & Marletto, C. (2015). Constructor theory of information. Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 471(2174), 20140540. doi:10.1098/rspa.2014.0540.

Read in full on 2026-10-27 (NOTE-1219).

Why this is here

A11 called it “the strongest new connection to fundamental physics”: a constraint stated as the structure of possible and impossible transformations, realized by physical substrates, which “could sharpen what Nucleation means by a constraint being real”. A11 also said it “does not itself entail relational constitution”. It bears on CLAIM-477; the reading tests both remarks (NOTE-1219, Bearing on the record).

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