The point of departure of this book is a triad of themes: information theory, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics. These are related: thermodynamics and quantum mechanics form the basis of quantum thermodynamics; information and quantum mechanics underly, inter alia, the notorious quantum measurement problem; and information and thermodynamics have much to say about control limits in the tension between micro- and macro-descriptions.

Why does the world around us typically look thermal from cosmology down to individual embedded spins? Do informational measures constitute...