Consciousness and the Universe

Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 15:19:04 -0800
From: Menas Kafatos <mkafatos@gmuvax.gmu.edu>
To: quantum-d@teleport.com
Subject: Consciousness and the Universe

I have been thinking now for some time on some fundamental principles 
about the universe and their connection to the consciousness issue. My 
thinking is that this provides another approach, different from but 
complementary to the whole debate on consciousness and brain, AI debates, 
qualia, etc. which in some sense I find rather anthropocentric (or to put 
it more mildly, the issue of consciousness includes but is not limited 
to issues of human consciousness). 

These  principles may be pointing **to the existence/interweaving of 
consciousness and the universe**. This would be a follow-on to the book 
"The Conscious Universe: Part and Whole in Modern Physical Theory" that 
Bob Nadeau and I wrote a few years ago (Springler-Verlag 1990). 

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                FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES & CONSCIOUSNESS

SIMPLICITY
----------

 Universe is remarkably simple at fundamental levels
 A few elegant symmetries are all that seem to be needed to describe 
  fundamental particles (e.g. CPT invariance) 
 Mathematics is language that describes universe
 QM and GR are elegantly simple
 
Issues

 Does "simplicity" of fundamental particles continue to even more 
 fundamental levels?
 Are constituent blocks (quarks) composed of even simpler blocks? 
 Where does simplicity end?

SELF-ORGANIZATION
-----------------

 Particles -> Nuclei -> Nuclei + Electrons -> Atoms -> Molecules -> 
 Macromolecules -> Cells
 Non-linear dynamics may be required to describe self-organized 
 structures 
 Simple quantum systems -> self-organized structures
 Self-replicating structures -> cells
 Gravity leads to self-organized macro-objects as well (planets, stars, 
 galaxies, clusters of galaxies)

Issues

 Does self-organization explain emergence of life in a finite universe?
 Is self-organization scale-invariant?
 Is complexity proportional to self organization?

COMPLEXITY
----------

 Non-linear dynamics is needed to explain complex systems
 Highly complex structures occur at all levels
 Complex system, our biosphere, emerged

Issues

 Not clear if non-linear dynamics can be integrated into QM.
 Mathematics may not be all that is needed to explain complex biological 
 structures.
 Is complexity, scale invariant? 

COMPLEMENTARITY
--------------

 Unified description of universe must occur
 Unified approach requires complementary modes of description
 Complementarity is cornerstone of Copenhagen Interpretation of QM
 Complementarity and wave/particle duality are interwoven
 Complementary constructs appear to be opposing views as "horizon" of 
 knowledge is approached
 Horizons of knowledge and constants of nature are closely related

Issues
 
 Is complementarity the hallmark of the universe?
 Are the constants fundamental or is complementarity fundamental?
 Is complementarity scale-invariant?

NON-LOCALITY / WHOLENESS
------------------------

 Non-locality is a hallmark of quantum view of the universe
 Wave-particle complementarity spills over to microscopic regimes 
 (e.g. Bell's inequality)
 Non-locality is firmly established
 Non-locality may explain remarkable facts about our universe 
 (homogeneity, isotropy, etc.)

Issues

 Are non-locality and wholeness the same?
 Is wholeness scale-free?
 Is wholeness nothing but the obvious?

Are the above principles the fundamental characteristics of a conscious
universe? Then, 

CONSCIOUSNESS
-------------

 Consciousness may be fundamental and not an evolutionary accident
 Universe may be a living, conscious whole
 Simplicity, Self-Organization, Complexity, Complementarity, 
 Non-Locality/Wholeness may be revealing underlying consciousness
 
Issues

 What is consciousness?
 Is mind the same as consciousness?
 Does consciousness persist beyond all levels?
 Is consciousness driving the universe?
 What is object and what is subject?

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To be more specific on the issues of self-organization and complexity: 

We find that self-organization and complexity are prevalent at all scales 
in the universe. Some simple observations follow. 

Particles combine together to form more and more complex systems in 
self-organizational structures (this observation by itself if accepted 
as the only principle would lead one to become a shameless reductionist). 

In other words,

  Particles -> Nuclei -> Nuclei + Electrons -> Atoms -> Molecules -> 
  Macromolecules -> Cells, etc.

However, at some point non-linear dynamics may be required to describe 
self-organized structures. I say "at some point" because we still don't have
a quantum theory of chaos. One then has

  Simple quantum systems -> self-organized structures, and
  Self-replicating structures -> cells, etc.

We then have the following:

  a. Non-linear dynamics is needed to explain complex systems
  b. Highly complex structures occur at all levels
  c. A particular complex system, our own biosphere, emerged at some
     point (here I don't just refer to temporal events, I am also
     referring to structural organizational flows)

These may be obvious to anyone but bear with me and let's follow a bit 
more to look at some related unresolved issues:

Does self-organization explain the emergence of life in a finite 
universe? Is self-organization scale-invariant?  And, is complexity, 
scale invariant? Is complexity proportional (in the sense of a linear 
function) to self-organization? We also note that it is not clear if 
non-linear dynamics can be integrated into QM. Also, mathematics may 
not be all that is needed to explain complex biological structures 
(and for that matter highly complex systems). If the latter is true, 
and it would be if you followed the above line of logic, then we go 
back to the issue of how we can bring in mathematical descriptions 
of complex systems. The answer may be that we can't **beyond a certain 
point** (obviously mathematical descriptions do well up to a certain 
point) or, perhaps, a new kind of mathematics is needed, at a pre-
non-linear dynamical level (in the same sense that pre-geometry may be
needed beyond the level of general relativistic space-time manifolds).

The upshot of all of this may be that the Universe and Consciousness 
are related to each other the same way that body and the mind are 
related to each other; and, individual consciousness may be identical 
to universal Consciousness (but the latter is undefinable--hence 
individual consciousness may be its only gateway). 

Then the entire scientific endeavor and all varieties of human 
experiences are interwoven and connected to the universe at the most 
fundamental levels.

-----------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
Menas Kafatos                                        |tel.  (703) 993-1997 |
University Professor of Interdisciplinary Science,   |secr. (703) 993-3627 |
and Director, Center for Earth Observing and Space   |                     |
Research (CEOSR)                                     |FAX   (703) 993-3628 |
Institute for Computational Sciences and Informatics |FAX   (703) 993-1980 |
MSN 5C3, Science and Tech I, Room 301                |                     |
George Mason University                              |                     |
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444                               |                     |
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e-mail  mkafatos@compton.gmu.edu  |                                         
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