Roy,
A remark on the assumptions in Verlinde's theory:
1. introduces an 'effective' force, the entropic force [conservative macroscopically]
2. assume space is...literally just a storage space for information.
3. assume that information is stored on surfaces.
4. imagine that info about particle location is stored in discrete bits on screen.
5. dynamics on each screen given by unknown rules.
6. [info processing] doesn't have to be by local field theory or anything familiar.
7. assume [like AdS/CFT] one special direction for course graining variables.
8. assume well defined notion of time [microscopic].
9. assume Bekenstein's argument [about] Compton wavelength.
10. postulate change of energy associated with info on boundary.
11. assume entropy proportialnal to mass [and additive]
12. use osmosis to analogize an effective force of entropy.
13. assume Unruh's temperature proportional to acceleration.
14. forget Unruh for Newton, don't need.
15 Think of boundary as storage for info, assume holographic principle.
16. assume number of bits proportional to area.
17. introduce new constant, G.
18. assume energy divided evenly over N-bits.
19. assume [invisible] mass is noticed through its energy.
20 Voila -- Newton's law, "practically from first principles".
.
Contrast with my assumptions:
1. Assume only one field, G, that can interact only with itself: del dot G = G dot G.
2. apply Maxwell: E=G^2 & Einstein: E=mc^2 --yielding Newton's law: del dot G = -m.
.
And compare the things that fall out of the Master equation here.
Verlinde of course says that he has just 'reversed' the logic that led from Newton's law to black hole thermodynamics in order to instead go from black hole thermodynamics to Newton's law.
But is this the equivalent of "drawing a map from territory" [Korzybski] and then trying to derive territory from a map? Do all reversals make physical sense?
Finally, I believe that the 'energy/area' relations for the black hole can be derived *exactly* without ever invoking the concept of information. So why, if the relation is simply dependent on energy, would one insist that information be brought into the picture in such an artificial fashion dependent on so many assumptions, some quite questionable?
I don't believe information is a 'thing'. It is 'about' things, and thus dependent on a representation. 'Things' do not depend on representations, they are real.
This is, I believe, related to the excursion of physics from reality that I see in full swing.
Thanks for your consideration,
Edwin Eugene Klingman