A living organism, like the human body, replaces nearly every atom within a decade. A waterfall is a constant pattern, yet the water constituting it is never the same from one moment to the next. So, what persists? It’s not the material stuff. It's the arrangement, the structure, the information.

Traditional reductionism would claim the waterfall is 'nothing but' water molecules governed by gravity. This misses the point. It fails to explain the stable, recognizable form. On the other hand, a mystical emergentism might say the 'waterfall-ness' is a new property that magically arises, which isn't a satisfying explanation either.

This is where Causal Compositionism offers a third path. It argues that both matter and the abstract, immaterial information that organizes it are co-equal in creating reality. The identity of a complex system lies in its informational structure, not its transient material components.

In this view, information isn't just something we communicate; it's a fundamental constituent of the cosmos. Think of it as the 'software' running on the 'hardware' of matter and energy. This moves beyond simple mereology—the study of parts and wholes. It's not enough to list the components of a system. You have to account for the causal bonds and organizational principles that link them.

These informational bonds are what synthesize parts into a coherent, functioning whole. DNA, for example, is pure information. The material atoms making up the molecule are interchangeable, but the sequence—the information—guides the construction of an entire organism. This informational pattern is what persists through reproduction and ensures the organism's identity remains stable over generations, even as the matter cycles through.

The diagram above illustrates this process. The underlying material (the dots) changes, but the organizing principle—the informational structure—remains constant, preserving the system's identity.

But where does this organizing information come from? The second law of thermodynamics states that the universe as a whole tends toward disorder, or maximum entropy. Yet, we see pockets of immense order all around us: stars, galaxies, life, and minds. This is the Cosmic Creation Process.

Doyle posits that information is created when negative entropy (or negentropy) is generated. This doesn't violate the second law. To create a pocket of local order (low entropy), a system must export an even greater amount of entropy into its environment. A star, for instance, creates complex elements and structure but radiates immense heat and light (high entropy) into space.

This makes information ontologically prior to matter and energy in a crucial sense. While matter and energy are the raw materials, it is the flow and creation of information via negative entropy that allows for morphogenesis—the origin of new forms. Biological evolution is the quintessential example: random mutations provide new raw information, and natural selection filters it, preserving the structures that successfully maintain their informational identity against the tide of chaos.

This framework provides a powerful lens for understanding how complex, self-organizing systems, from cells to consciousness, can exist at all.