Intrigued, Matloff wondered if there was a way to take these squishy arguments and put them to an observational test. From string theory to creationism, everyone seems to be trying to solve essential issues about the universe – “reality.” Perhaps the universe should be considered consciousness that appears as it does as a result of my consciousness’ interaction with it. We may share this property of experience, and that is what consciousness is: the ability to experience anything, from the most mundane to the most refined religious experience.”, Related: Cosmic Bruise Could be Evidence of Multiple Universes. Eventually, it should be possible to run such experiments with humans, wiring their brains together to see if a new type of consciousness emerges. Mathematicians think they can help, but their first attempts have thrown up some eye-popping conclusions. that pure consciousness is conscious; being conscious, it assumes the role of knower, object of knowledge and process of knowing. But it does mean that, for the first time, neuroscientists, biologists physicists and anybody else can all reason about consciousness using the universal language of science: mathematics. Philip Perry, “ The universe may be conscious, say prominent scientists ” at BigThink, June 25, 2017 Theoretical physicist John Archibald Wheeler (1911–2008), a “giant of 20th century physics,” believed that “reality might not be a wholly physical phenomenon. Related: What Einstein and Bill Gates Teach Us About Time Travel. Not least, what they are uncovering seems to suggest that if we are to achieve a precise description of consciousness, we may have to ditch our intuitions and accept that all kinds of inanimate matter could be conscious – maybe even the universe as a whole. Despite his towering stature as a physicist, Penrose has encountered resistance to his theory of consciousness. As to whether there is consciousness "in" the Universe: well, WE are in the Universe, and We (or some of us) are conscious. Now, some are wondering if maths can succeed where all else has failed, unravelling whatever it is that allows us to contemplate the laws of nature in the first place. It caused a bit of a stir. At some point, according to integrated information theory, the two should merge into a single, larger information system. Physicist Eugene Wigner coined the phrase in the 1960s to encapsulate the curious fact that merely by manipulating numbers we can describe and predict all manner of natural phenomena with astonishing clarity, from the movements of planets and the strange behaviour of fundamental particles to the consequences of a collision between two black holes billions of light years away. Is Consciousness All There Is? This theory may be true to a very simple system, and it is possible that not biological or organic physical systems may also be conscious. A lot of the proposed information goes against what the world understands currently and to achieve an accurate description of consciousness itself, it may be necessary to ditch all intuitions and accept that inanimate matter could in fact be conscious, maybe even the universe … , updated 4 May 2020, Large parts of Africa may not get covid-19 vaccines for several years, Koalas are being given birth control to fight overpopulation, Demis Hassabis interview: Our AI will unlock secrets of how life works. New York University philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers is a proponent. Recently, he zeroed in on a little-studied anomaly in stellar motion known as Paranego’s Discontinuity. The basic commitment is … Rather that it IS mathematics. Which brings us to Roger Penrose and his theories linking consciousness and quantum mechanics. Physicist Gregory Matloff argues that a “proto-consciousness field” could extend through all of space. Even in that context, Gregory Matloff’s ideas are shocking. Is the universe conscious? In 2016, physicist Gregory Matloff published a paper in which he put forward the idea that the Universe might be conscious. IE 11 is not supported. It seems impossible until you do the maths The question of how the brain gives rise to subjective experience is the hardest of all… Existing subscribers, please log in with your email address to link your account access. But if it is something intrinsic to the stars — as consciousness would be — it should be the same everywhere. Apparent Consciousness? Should you avoid alcohol when getting a coronavirus vaccine? It is possible to give a precise meaning to the claim that SN is the universe of ordinary mathematics; it is a model of Zermelo set theory, the axiomatic set theory originally developed by Ernst Zermelo in 1908. Called by its formal academic name, though, “panpsychism” turns out to have prominent supporters in a variety of fields. The history of mathematics is a history of humanity seeking to understand the universe. In principle, some purely physical systems that are not biological or organic may also be conscious.”. Perhaps because physics produces consciousness, and consciousness produces mathematics, mathematics can never describe a united theory of physics. The question of how matter gives rise to felt experience is one of the most vexing problems we know of. He calls his interpretation the “participatory anthropic principle.” If he is correct, the universe is conscious, but in almost the opposite of the way that Matloff pictures it: Only through the acts of conscious minds does it truly exist at all. The basic commitment is that the fundamental constituents of reality - 'perhaps electrons and quarks' - … A “proto-consciousness field” could extend through all of space, he argues. Philosophers have pondered the nature of consciousness for a couple of thousand years, largely to no avail. It seems impossible until you do the maths. On average, cooler stars orbit our galaxy more quickly than do hotter ones. If A=B and B=C, then A=C. Some of the world's most renowned scientists are questioning whether the cosmos has an inner life similar to our own. Words such as “crackpot,” “science fiction,” and some that are unprintable were heard. Stars may be thinking entities that deliberately control their paths. “We are participators in bringing into being not only the near and here but the far away and long ago,” Wheeler said in 2006. In Tegmark's view, everything in the universe — humans included — is part of a mathematical structure. Is there any way to tell? “It is part and parcel of the physical.” From this perspective, the universe may not exactly be thinking, but it still has an internal experience intimately tied to our own. Haisch proposed that the quantum fields that permeate all of empty space (the so-called "quantum vacuum") produce and transmit consciousness, which then emerges in any sufficiently complex system with energy flowing through it. Professor Tegmark, who has also formulated the so-called Ultimate ensemble theory of everything, argues that all structures which exist in the mathematical sense also exist physically. - see the article below. THEY call it the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics”. Most astronomers attribute the effect to interactions between stars and gas clouds throughout the galaxy. “It’s all very speculative, but it’s something we can check and either validate or falsify,” he says. Oddly, his colleagues have been more accepting of the exotic, cosmic-consciousness implications of quantum mechanics. Although the sun is vastly bigger than a bacterium, from a mathematical perspective it is also vastly simpler. “This could be the beginning of a scientific revolution,” says Johannes Kleiner, a mathematician at the Munich Centre for Mathematical Philosophy in Germany. He wondered: Could this actually be a willful process? The search for the origin of life: From panspermia to primordial soup. Despite their seeming similarities, Koch is dubious of Matloff’s volitional stars. There are no stars to monitor, and no brains to measure, to understand whether reality depends on the presence of consciousness. The idea of a conscious universe seems to fly in the face of our deep-seated materialist worldview, whereby all existence is due to material particles and their interactions, says Marcelo Gleiser. That makes his answer to complicated questions like "What is consciousness?" Even if it cannot be proven, the participatory anthropic principle extends the unifying agenda of modern science, powerfully evoking the sense of connectedness that Albert Einstein called the cosmic religious feeling. Scientists have long shown us the extraordinary power of mathematics. Put more bluntly, the entire cosmos may be self-aware. It is a big ask. Our universe & its fractal systems reality are simply a projection of the mathematical reality! The consciousness theory is associated with complexity and “a system’s ability to act upon its own state and determine its own fate”. FOLLOW NBC MACH ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK, AND INSTAGRAM. 29 April 2020 What is distinctive about living things, according to his theory, is not that they are alive but that they are complex. This doesn't mean that literally everything is conscious. "In principle, some purely physical systems that are not biological or organic may also be conscious.”, “The only dominant theory we have of consciousness says that it is associated with complexity — with a system’s ability to act upon its own state and determine its own fate.”, Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center / NASA/CXC/SAO, Warp Speed Won't Get Us to the Stars, but This Just Might, Inside Neil deGrasse Tyson's Famed Office. Ever since the 1920s, physicists have puzzled over the strangely privileged role of the observer in quantum theory. Hence, the Universe has consciousness "in" it. Science with Sam explains. Like Matloff, Koch and his colleagues are actively engaged in experimental tests of these ideas. “The only dominant theory we have of consciousness says that it is associated with complexity — with a system’s ability to act upon its own state and determine its own fate,” Koch says. Of course, things explode and fall apart, but for the most part, it comes together over time. As I expected, the primary focus of the article is Integrated Information Theory , a way to understand consciousness proposed by … The bottom line, Matloff argues, is that panpsychism is too important to ignore. Zermelo set theory was successful precisely because it was capable of axiomatising "ordinary" mathematics, fulfilling the programme begun by Cantor over 30 years earlier. Matloff began searching for astronomical objects that unexpectedly exhibit this behavior. For centuries, modern science has been shrinking the gap between humans and the rest of the universe, from Isaac Newton showing that one set of laws applies equally to falling apples and orbiting moons to Carl Sagan intoning that “we are made of star stuff” — that the atoms of our bodies were literally forged in the nuclear furnaces of other stars. Matloff noted further that some stars appear to emit jets that point in only one direction, an unbalanced process that could cause a star to alter its motion. In 2006, German physicist Bernard Haisch, known both for his studies of active stars and his openness to unorthodox science, took Penrose’s idea a big step further. And sure enough, the first fleshed-out mathematical model of consciousness has generated huge debate about whether it can tell us anything sensible. On the other hand, “even systems that we don’t consider animate could have a little bit of consciousness,” Koch says. It seems impossible until you do the maths. Now let’s clearly state that mathematics does not alone run the universe, but the universe is mathematically predictable in its functioning. The primary postulate in Tony Nader's paper Consciousness is All There Is: A Mathematical Approach is that, quite simply, consciousness is all there is, thus reversing the customary paradigm of modern science that matter is all there is. [major edits] Even if our consciousness is an illusion (even in the sense Denett suggests), the mere fact we see some information flowing across the universe means there is at least something that For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Our aim in this lecture is to read the mind of mathematics and how it's related to arts & sciences to describe our reality. A famous cosmologist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Max Tegmark has a different idea: he states that the Universe is made of… mathematics. So too, in different ways, are neuroscientist Christof Koch of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose, renowned for his work on gravity and black holes. That is, the physical universe is not merely described by mathematics, but is mathematics (specifically, a mathematical structure). In his view, the existence of widespread, ubiquitous consciousness is strongly tied to scientists’ current understanding of the neurological origins of the mind. Our consciousness is not simply consciousness of the universe; our consciousness is a part of the universe, and thus the universe itself is partially conscious. Mathematics is proving the universe conscious. The human brain is just an extreme example of that process, Koch explains: “We are more complex, we have more self-awareness — well, some of us do — but other systems have awareness, too. Penrose sums up this connection beautifully in his opus "The Road to Reality": “The laws of physics produce complex systems, and these complex systems lead to consciousness, which then produces mathematics, which can then encode in a succinct and inspiring way the very underlying laws of physics that gave rise to it.”. Happy Holidays. Another approach, further off, is to wire the brains of two mice together and see how the integrated consciousness of the animals changes as the amount of information flowing between them is increased. All matter is made up of particles, which have properties such as … While Matloff looks out to the stars to verify panpsychism, Christof Koch looks at humans. The Universe tends toward COHERENCING -- hence, galaxies, stars and us. Maybe we can move panpsychism from philosophy to observational astrophysics.”. Explorers like Matloff are routinely dismissed as fringe thinkers, but it is hard to think of any greater expression of that feeling than continuing the quest to find out if our human minds are just tiny components of a much greater cosmic brain. One approach is to study brain-impaired patients to see if their information responses align with biological measures of their consciousness. In any mathematical structure complex enough to contain such substructures, they "will subjectively perceive t… If he is correct, the universe is conscious, but in almost the opposite of the way that Matloff pictures it: Only through the acts of conscious minds does it truly exist at all. According to panpsychism, in contrast, consciousness pervades the universe and is a fundamental feature of it. Called by its formal academic name, though, “panpsychism” turns out to have prominent supporters in a variety of fields.