Panconsciousness: A Quantum Leap To Ancestor-Simulation-Program
Panpsychism holds that the universe is a web of consciousness – an empty stage in which everything that exists has somehow come into being in order to act out the great drama of life. Panpsychism may soon be replaced by Panconsciousness, if a new paper written by a team of scientists from the Los Angeles-based Quantum Gravity Research Theoretical Physics Institute passes academic, peer-reviewed muster. This will mean mankind’s whole conception of who we are and how we got here, will take a quantum leap forward. The study is entitled The Self-Simulation Hypothesis Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. To say it is ground-breaking is an understatement. In simple terms, it proposes that our physical universe consists of what is called a “strange loop.”
Who are we and how did we get here? (By stockphotokae / Adobe Stock)
Universe: An Ancestor-Simulation Programme
The paper begins by employing a relatively well-known theory about what is regarded as reality. It might be a kind of computer program. This idea has been considered and argued for a few years now. It is usually couched in speculations that the universe is, in effect, an ancestor-simulation program being run by post-human, vastly more evolved members of our own species, who are experimenting with different scenarios and “what if” questions. According to Nick Bostrom, one of the authors of the new study, “The process of evolution itself could just be a mechanism by which future beings are testing countless processes, purposefully moving humans through levels of biological and technological growth. In this way they also generate the supposed information or history of our world. Ultimately, we wouldn't know the difference.”
Other proponents even wonder if advanced lifeforms from elsewhere in the multiverse are behind the whole simulation. But this paper suggests a simpler answer. In short, it says that our universe might be a “mental self-stimulation.” In other words, according to this theory, “mind” is at the root of everything, and the material universe perceived by our senses and, by extension, the tools of our science, is a manifestation of that mind, which has created a “body” for itself. That body is nothing less than the physical universe. If that alone is not enough, the theory utilizes advanced ideas about quantum mechanics to speculate that our universe is only one of many possible universes, all of which are created by “Mind” itself. In the words of physicist David Chester: “In a sense, the mental construct of reality creates spacetime to efficiently understand itself by creating a network of subconscious entities that can interact and explore the totality of possibilities."
Lifeforms in the Multiverse are behind the Simulation ( zeleniy9 / Adobe Stock)
Animism: Conscious Intelligent Spirits
Right away, one can see how objections might arise. If we substitute the word “God” for “Mind,” for instance, the theory sounds suspiciously similar to religious beliefs that have been held for thousands of years. Most modern scientists would probably not take kindly to the idea that all they have done is to redefine, using scientific vocabulary, the idea that, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and eventually made humankind in God’s image. The Quantum Gravity Research team puts it more delicately: "We must critically think about consciousness and certain aspects of philosophy that are uncomfortable subjects to some scientists."
That aside, however, and looking only at the scientific evidence, without resorting to any religious terminology, The Self-Simulation Hypothesis Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics seems to be a revolutionary new way of interpreting an age-old system of belief that has at its roots what might be the oldest religion embraced by humans. Today we call that religion, Animism.
