Quantum Information: Conceptual and Ontological Aspects

Chris Timpson (Brasenose College, Oxford) gives a talk at the Workshop on Quantum Computation, Quantum Information, and the Exact Sciences (30-31 January, 2015) titled "Quantum Information: Conceptual and Ontological Aspects". Abstract: In this talk I will explore some ways of thinking about what quantum information is. This topic has a certain intrinsic interest, but it is also important when trying to assess in a careful way what role the concept of information might have to play in fundamental physics. I shall argue for a view which is fairly ontologically deflationary about quantum information (this has significant impact on how we should understand the slogan ‘information is physical’ and for informational immaterialist views) and which sees quantum and classical (Shannon) information both as species of a single genus.