The Information Catastrophe - EP 31

In this episode, hosts Dante and Dave dive into the Information Catastrophe—a provocative idea suggesting that the sheer volume of digital information humanity is producing may have profound consequences for the future of our planet and even the fabric of reality itself.

The dads break down physicist Melvin Vopson’s theories, exploring whether the exponential growth of data could eventually consume all of Earth’s energy, and what this might mean for our understanding of physics, entropy, and the limits of civilization. Along the way, they wrestle with Landauer’s principle, the cost of erasing information, and whether we’re sleepwalking into a crisis nobody is prepared to handle.

Is data the new pollution? Or is there something deeper going on with information as a fundamental building block of the universe? Tune in as Dante and Dave pull the threads together.

Show Notes & References:

• Melvin Vopson – The Information Catastrophe (book): https://a.co/d/5z9uY5S

• Vopson lecture on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lYwMX3KbGBI

• Landauer’s Principle (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landauer%27s_principle