A Change in the Structure of Information

All causation, even local
And not a bit spooky at all,
Is a kind of entanglement.

Nothing has the strength to create,
To bring about a specific
Outcome at a given distance

Or at any distance. Knowledge
About that outcome spreads around.
Knowledge gets redistributed,

And the brain sees distribution,
By habit, as having a cause,
And takes great pains to distinguish

True causes from correlations,
Not to say coincidences.
In practice, causation itself

Is just an idealized form
Of knowledge concerning events
In sequences that can be linked

To necessary, sufficient,
Precursory, correlative
Components and correlative

Events in indissoluble
Chains, which, metaphorically,
Amount to if-and-only-if

This then also this. This caused this.
But that’s still just information
About certain entanglements.

Action at a distance only
Serves to illustrate how causes
Aren’t so powerful after all,

Are only something that you know
About what has to go with what.
The knowledge is spooky, that’s all.