ABSTRACT
If matter is a myth that does no real metaphysical work, matter, especially as conceived within a space-time-mass-energy continuum, is still a convenience to thought, especially to science. I’m not sure matter is quite as useful a convenience to thought for science as, say, the Arabic numerals are for mathematics, but let’s give matter the benefit of the doubt. I therefore won’t abolish matter, and I’ll even be happy to talk of matter as a medium for information, albeit with the tacit understanding that matter in its concrete manifestations, rather than as a vague abstraction, is always a thoroughly informational entity. In fact, as a shorthand, we may define matter as the medium for information. Such a definition would, however, allow for physical matter, mathematical matter, and even spiritual matter (if the latter exists). Physical matter would thus refer directly or indirectly to sensible objects (i.e., objects inferred from their ability to impart patterns detectable by our senses). Mathematical matter would refer to mathematical objects such as the set of all infinite sequences of bits, a set capable of representing a Turing machine.
