I am wondering whether there is a force of attraction and repulsion that depends on how information is aligned within a system.
Gravity draws matter together. Magnetism can produce attraction or repulsion depending on orientation. Could information have a comparable property? Could its alignment help determine how parts of an information system attract or repel one another?
Contents and Arrangement
Consider the sentences “The dog follows the child” and “The child follows the dog.” They contain the same words, but changing the arrangement reverses the relationship they describe. This gives us a simple way to separate the pieces of information from how they are organized.
Now imagine a system containing several informational patterns. Alongside asking which patterns are present, we could ask how they relate to one another. The possibility I am interested in is that some aspect of this arrangement gives rise to attraction or repulsion within the system.
What Alignment Could Mean
I am using alignment as a starting point for describing that relationship. It need not mean that two patterns are identical or agree with each other. Different patterns might fit together; similar ones might interfere. We should leave open which arrangements produce which effects.
Context could matter too. A pattern might align with one part of a system and oppose another. Introducing a new pattern could change how the existing ones relate. If a force depends on alignment, these changes could alter the system’s behaviour even while the original patterns remain present.
What Would Attraction and Repulsion Look Like?
With matter, we can picture objects moving closer together or farther apart. What would the equivalent be for information? Attraction might appear as patterns reinforcing or sustaining one another. Repulsion might appear as one pattern disrupting or displacing another. These are possible ways to look for the effect; its precise form is still an open question.
Simply finding two patterns together would not establish attraction. They could coexist without affecting each other. Nor would finding them apart establish repulsion. The proposal concerns an interaction: something about their alignment would change what they do to one another.
Imagine rearranging the same set of patterns within a system. If the proposed force exists, could a change in alignment turn attraction into repulsion? If we restored the earlier arrangement, would the earlier interaction return? This gives us a concrete question to pursue while leaving the mechanism open.
Repulsion deserves equal attention. It could help keep patterns distinct or prevent particular arrangements from persisting.
For alignment to explain anything, we would need to recognize it independently of its effects. Calling patterns “aligned” simply because they attract would take us in a circle. We would need to describe their alignment first, then see whether it predicts the interaction.
If informational alignment reliably predicts attraction and repulsion, we could ask what causes that relationship and whether existing mechanisms fully explain it. The possibility I want to explore is that alignment itself gives rise to a force of attraction and repulsion within an information system.