TLDR; The universe is not based on information, the informationally complex systems like life we see in the universe exist in spite of the universe, not because of it

This is an indirect response to a comment Demis Hassabis made (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ZtBQI2-GY&t=1662s) but it’s also an argument I’ve heard before and my post here is not a direct reply to him but rather I will use his comment as a jumping off point.

It’s very easy to look at the universe and see all this complex stuff and think that physics is based on information, but the way I see it is that for example life, exists in spite of the universe rather than because of it.
First off all life dies, and all complex structures life creates (like technology, buildings, etc) have to fight the entropic decay of the universe. This tells me that the universe doesn’t really support life, or complex structures, but rather is always trying to tear them down.

It also tells me that the information that exists on the macro scale doesn’t exist on the micro scale. If the universe was based on information, I would expect to see a much simpler universe where those informational concepts were in play at all scales, but rather what we see is that the macro scale information systems are fleeting, constantly under attack, and eventually dissipate into the micro scale components (like molecules, atoms), and the micro scale patterns are simple.

Another thing we see is that when we look out into the universe, what we see is a hell of a lot planets, and a hell of a lot of stars, and not much in terms of informational complexity. And this is kind of what we would expect in this type of universe. Informationally complex systems like life are relatively rare in a region because of the universe has a difficulty producing them due to the extreme amount of combinations the micro scale components can create.

The other thing is the way I see information is that it is basically a repeating pattern in the universe. If a pattern can repeat, and then repeating patterns can combine into ensembles of repeating patterns (like life), then you have informational complexity. But this also means informational complexity reduces combinatorial complexity on the micro scale, it doesn’t increase it. All of the molecules in my body are forced to follow the macro scale movements and dictations of my body (my repeating pattern). And so my point is there are very few repeating patterns at the micro scale (quantum mechanics and below, for example). In physics based on information, I would expect to see a much simpler universe rather than a complex one.

In our universe, all informational complexity seems to be emergent phenomena that last for a little while, then succumbs to entropic decay, rather than it being built into the micro scale physics.