Physics is undergoing a revolution. The old idea of solid matter is losing ground, replaced by a new notion: information. Supported by Stephen Hawking's work on black holes, which suggests information is conserved even when physical matter is destroyed, many physicists now argue that information is the fundamental fabric of reality. But within this new orthodoxy, there is no agreement on what information actually is. The current winners are those who argue that information is physically encoded in quantum particles. Others contend the universe is a giant computer. Critics, however, argue that information is not physical at all but the means by which we construct our reality.

Should we see reality as information, and if so, how can a description of reality itself be reality? Or should we see information as a human invention, one born of our relationship to observation, data, language, and meaning? At root, is information the way we make sense of the world, or the very stuff of the universe?

Quantum physicist Ivette Fuentes, simulation theorist Melvin Vopson, astronomer Adam Frank, and CERN particle physicist Daniel Whiteson debate information and reality.