Information as Ontologically Prior to Medium: A Philosophical Argument from Quantum Mechanics

This paper argues that information is ontologically prior to physical medium. Drawing on conceptual features of quantum mechanics—particularly the distinction between possibility spaces and actualized states, the substrate-independence of quantum information, and the conservation of information in black hole physics—the paper defends the claim that a medium presupposes informational structure, whereas informational structure does not presuppose any particular medium. This asymmetry provides a philosophical basis for treating information as fundamental.