Monist vs. Dualist Experiment?

[bennyboy]

What's the "it" that is contradicting itself?

The negation of the statement "the world is real". Which is what you asked.

That was short hand for "the world I experience is a part of an objective physical reality," since it's real enough as the collection of experiences that I've had. So the negation would be "the world I experience is not a part of an objective physical reality." There's nothing self-contradictory about it.

Spoken like a true substance dualist. Tell me, if I look at a strange system, how am I to know whether it is collecting and manipulating "meaningful" information, or just part of the ongoing cascade of packets of energy moving around the universe?

Read the definition again - and then restate your question.

[Data processing is "the collection and manipulation of items of data to produce meaningful information."]

Your definition is too imprecise. What's "data," if not any property of any physical system? What's "information" if not any property which influences the properties of any other system? But I will be happy to restate my question: If I look at a strange system, how am I to know whether it is collecting "data" and producing "meaningful information," or just part of the ongoing cascade of packets of energy moving around the universe?