The Fabric Of Reality

Review and critical questions about David Deutsch's book including parallel universes, life and time travel.

The Singularity

Things are changing faster and faster than ever. Children know more about new technologies than people just a few years older. It will not be long before this goes down and AI catches up.

Natural Un-natural

Looking at nature and what has occurred. Diversity of plants and animals yet no aliens and barren space. Illusion. Patterns generated upon a quantum framework.

Oddities including the lack of intelligence during the dinosaurs, how humans evolved consciousness, emergent systems (arguments for and against natural selection and intelligent design). Being watched / protected from other dimensions.

Quantum Reality

Are we in a quantum universe? It just may be possible that the reason why are world is so fixed and rigid is that we live in a universe that is one quantum state. Scale may be irrelevent in other dimensions and the only way to see through this would be to burst the bubble and escape the universe. But that may cause the whole thing to collapse.

What is the ultimate trip for an alien? To experience the full emotional spectrum of a human being. Thus are inner mind or soul could be an alien hitcher becoming us and experiencing the now. An eternal being without physical form may crave a life like this above all else just like we may crave immortality.

Analogy Seeks Description

In Buddhism there are different realms of Samsara. As we live in the human realm, we can only normally detect the human and animal realms. Now when we dream we touch the other realms such as nightmares (hell realms), transformations (animal realms), ghosts, superhuman powers and feeling of invincibility/eternity (god realm) and even those without form.

To perceive these in the real world it works thus:

Hell: distortion of reality from sleep deprivation (collapse of the real and the imaginary collide), also seeing deformed figures and forms in art and nature as well as bad trips
Hungry Ghost Realm: This is intense starvation but may the ghosts that people sometimes be a possible vision of this realm?
Animal/Human: Direct senses, shapeshifting may have more direct facility to animals but why try to change the physical reality when the mind can jump across (by magical intent)
DemiGod/God: This is an interesting one for it could be the pyramid up to the Illuminati (or controlling powers human or non-human). By understanding more and more of what goes on we see this more clearly.

Same space is occupied by all but our senses take out what we are not supposed to or do not want to see. If our perception of reality collapses then everything may get confusing.

Birth-ageing-death-bardo-rebirth: We slip through this all the time when we go to sleep and dream. We experience miniture death (sleep) and miniture rebirth (dream) before another miniture death and another dream or rebirth back to life (waking). There are techniques and chemicals that may make all this as real if not more so than real life.

Nirvana/Enligtenment: We stop all of this and become one with the universe for eternity helping all. A consequence of this is freedom from suffering and losing the individuality that is the cause of suffering. An intent to help others induces the virtue to stop self cherishing and speed up the process. There is a science for this and not just a philosophy. Its a quantum science of mind and consciousness that can be translated from Buddhist texts and experiments derived from.

New Meta-physical Questions

Some burning questions and potential theories about the nature of reality, mind and the universe:

(1) Cosmic microwave background radiation. This remnant of the origin of the universe has had 14 billion years to evolve if it is complex enough for a degree of intelligence to develop. Also, if anything can pass from a previous universe then it would manifest in the background radiation and may even be responsible for the clumpiness that has led to the formation of galaxies and an imprint arising in a slight favour of matter over antimatter. If there is intelligence there then could it influence mind and technology (through patterns on the white noise)?

(2) It is interesting to find that some psychological and medical experiments indicate that mind (at a level of consciousness equivalent to the soul) does not entirely exist in the confines of the brain or body. Looking at Buddhism and karmic imprints it may be the case that our mind at a fundamental (or very subtle) level does endure indefinately.

(3) Vacuum energy is the energy created as a function of the instantaneous creation and destruction of fundamental particles at extremely small (Planck) scales. Is it possible the creation and destruction of the quantum foam is like the idea of dependent origination / emptiness encountered in Buddhism? To interfere with this may cause a fluctuation creating another universe or void-energy (like a miniture black hole). It would be subject to Heisenburgs Uncertainty Principle and may be what the brain uses at a fundamental level to decohere thoughts and link consciousness with the physical world.

(4) I would have thought that matter collapsing to form a black hole never creates a singularity. This would be a combination of very strong vacuum energy forces and time dilation effects. Also, gravity would seal such an event within an event horizon thus protecting our universe. This collapse would rebound at a critical density and explode (like miniture black holes do anyway) and time dilation working in reverse would leak the radiation out (as is observed with Hawking radiation) until the mass gets smaller and smaller and the event horizon closer and closer to the centre. Stripping way the event horizon would have little effect because of the gravity bending light inwards counteracting the speed of the explosion outwards. The only case where an actual singularity may form would be if enough matter collapsed to overcome the vacuum energy (quantum energy effects) and tunneling may occur before this threshold to create a new universe.

(5) We need a theory that covers the Relativity of all phenomena. This would extend Einstein's theory of General Realtivity to prove that everything lacks the properties of intrinsic reality, intrinsic objectivity, intrinsic identity and intrinsic referentiality - the lacking of static essence or substance). This would fit in not just with Buddhism but with current ideas about the quantum nature of phenomena and the lack of finding where the mass of an object comes form at a subatomic scale.

Of course all this is conjecture. We would need a theory of quantum gravity and unification of all the forces (the four physical forces of nature and the other non-physical or undiscovered forces of nature and consciousness) to even begin to answer such questions.

Remembering that only physical matter and energy are constrained by the limits and bounds of time and space we can use consciousness to travel instantly around and through every conceivable possibility. This includes ideas, dreams but also potentially across time and communicate with aliens without taking machines or bodies across space. No aliens in space - I wonder why? Yet how often do we communicate with other creatures and do impossible things when asleep or dying?

In fact it could be said that our minds operate along different 'dimensions' to our bodies with the brain as an interface to interact in this world. When dreaming we lose knowledge of out physical body and may generate an alternative body or drift between worlds without taking up a body. Of course without a brain all gross memories and experiences are lost. Yet what is that part of mind that transfers to another body through a bardo state that experiences the effects of past existence without remembering details of a previous life (unless the transference is quick enough for some memory to hold)?

Stories

Building character profiles from real life experiences. The extending them in situations with dialogue. Scenarios and descriptive writing. Experiment with one or two short stories.

Phenomena

Power of mind influencing reality. Sentient cosmos.

LHC

Search for the elusive Higgs particle. Yet it makes sense to think of Gravity as four dimensional (at the least) because it affects space and time. So the Higgs may exist but in four dimensions so it may not be detectable in three dimensions. Hence the weakness of gravity and apparent lack of mass found on the subatomic scale.

What happens if inverse black holes are created - caused by gravity reversing at high densities (situations found in singularities and in early universe)? The LHC is dangerously coming close to a universe in a laboratory.

Exoplanets with life

Recent discovery of possible Earth-like world. Likely to be locked to face star (permanent day/night side), either CO2 atmosphere (like Venus) or ocean. Could also be very hot due to internal heat.

Other worlds will be more suitable.

Ultimate Observer

According to quantum mechanics reality consists of probabilities and possibilities that collapses to the real only when a conscious mind makes an observation. However, the conscious mind with all of its observations is not realised until a second mind observes it. The second mind in turn needs a third observer to become real who needs a fourth onto infinitum. This could to relevent to Samsara (suffereing through endless rebirth since begginingless time).

According to Wigner this paradox is only resolved at the end of time when an ultimate observer (final mind) would make the final observation of all, terminating the chain of possibilities that reached back to the birth of the universe. In that instant the history of the present with all the suffering and wars would be eliminated and everyone living would be in an optimal history.

If this is the case then how could we tell whether, in an eternal sense, this has or has not already happened. Could it be that the ultimate observer is a future human or a collective mind transcending time (such as that attained by enligtenment)? Then why are we experiencing so much suffering as a species and what happens when things fit into place? Unless of course it has already happened and optimal relates to the human (or higher) species as a whole and not to individuals. This may also help to explain the lack of aliens in the physical universe and the harshness of the environment of space.

Fabric of Humanity

What is it that defines us or qualifies us above the level of animals? There are creatures that work in large social groups, have intelligence (deployed in ways other than via technology) and that have survived so much longer than us.

Also, why do people find it strange to find so many variations in thought, ideas, personality and conscious intent? Surely, this is mutation and evolution through nature affecting the brain. There is no normal average person because everyone's viewpoint is different.

Time functions differently and when AI reaches a high enough level then maybe we will learn whether consciousness is unique or natural. Also, what happens when humans are cloned, teleported or brought up from birth in sensory deprived / artificial environments?

Continuing Cosmic Thoughts

Thoughts and ideas like other dimensions linked by web of memory and association.

More Cosmological Questions

Black holes as cameras. To be added very shortly.

Cosmological Questions

Below are some questions about our universe and phenomena that I would like to research and find answers to:

- What is the shape of the universe? I have always thought the visible universe to be a 4-dimensional hypersphere of space time (3 space, 1 time) but this may not be the case. Why?

- Could the microwave background as imaged by COBE or WMAP be a signature not just of the big bang but contain a quantum level message from the creator of the universe?

- If the universe can into existence from a quantum tunneling event from a false vacuum and thought is a quantum event could it be possible that the universe is an idea and our thoughts and dreams create low probability parallel universes?

- Can it be mathematically or scientifically proven that consciousness can influence reality?

- What is the process whereby an accurate simulation of the universe can be generated with all the known physical laws and how would this be distinguishable to an observer inside that universe to what we see in our own universe?

Gaia and consciousness

I believe that James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis may explain much of the phenomena around us. For a start it helps us to see the world as a connected planet and provides an alternative viewpoint that incorporates both natural selection and intelligent design. As the planet grew and life started then maybe Gaia became aware and directed the increase in complexity of life on this planet including the structure of DNA and the human brain. She may be connected to galactic consciousness (maybe the whole universe is part of one giant entity) and we may be part of panspermia. I can see rapid development in terraforming technology in the next few decades as a reaction to our effect on the climate. I can also see Gaia creating a virus or disease to cull, elimate or drive man from this planet.

In addition to this I believe that we as human beings serve a greater purpose than watching TV and working dull and dreary jobs. The issue of personal and communal freedom only becomes apparent if we treat each other and the world without respect. Unfortunately this is what we are doing at the moment with wars, poverty and political deception. In fact the more we seek power and status the less we are in fact free. By destroying the planet's resources we are destroying ourselves. If we treated each other equally and lived in harmony with the environment then there would be less need for wealth and power and we would be happier, healthier and more in touch with the Earth.

Wouldn't it be great if we could communicate with Gaia via the Internet or even decode hidden cosmic messages from earlier collective consciousnesses that may be hidden in the cosmic background radiation?

I have a great idea to write a story and article about human technology and the mind of Gaia. Issues to consider would include what would happen if the mind of Gaia took over the Internet, the role of extraterrestial intelligences and how fragile is the human race on this Earth?

More about Gaia and Lovelock can be found at:

http://www.ecolo.org/lovelock/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_theory_(science)

What The Bleep Do You Know?

I think this film sums up a lot of what has been happening in my mind lately. We may live in a holodeck type environment and our actions are related to cause and effect. This applies across all dimensions and possiblities. If we all believe 100% that we are all hooked up in a matrix then we will be hooked up to a matrix (until a stronger paradigm comes along). If we start to address the environment as a species we will have a greater change of reducing population, pollutants and global warming. If we sit there with scattered thoughts whilst a small number of people control things (as the current case) then they will have 100% control of our future.

What this film does very well is explain the main cutting edge scientific ideas of quantum theory, emotion and consciousness through an integrated panorama of analogies, narrative and scientific explanation. It is easy to understand yet provokes those wow and eureka moments that are so lacking in much of modern society today. Addiction, religion, decision making and influence by human will (real magic) are explored. Things become stranger and stranger the deeper we look into them. Matter appears insubstantial because we are looking for smaller and smaller components until nature cannot become smaller (hence the fuzziness). Similarly, the deeper we look into the rabbit hole the stranger reality becomes. For what is realty but an illusion generated by mind?

I believe that anything is possible but also that nature in lazy in its presentation of the universe. For example, it is entirely credible to think that our world reality is a series of ideas generated by the mind and anything not directly perceived does not physically exist at the moment where it is out of focus. So, all those alternative realities and those aliens we are searching for do not exist until we believe, as a collective consciousness, that they do. This applies to ideas, dreams and physical reality alike. Quantum theory is the science of conceptualising phenomena that we would otherwise think of an act of God or that which we lack dieect proof of existing.

Time is an illusion. It is an illusion that gives life meaning and outside of time there is an eternal moment where all of space and possibilities (results of decisions and karma) exist. Our mind persists in eternity but requires a body and brain to experience and become alive. After death and during sleep (or sensory deprivation or mind altering drugs) the apparently solid physical reality is replaced by that the mind craves. So naturally most minds crave to be reborn in another body after this one dies. A ghost in a machine without the machine is just a ghost. This may still influence animate and other natural objects but in the main a soul (the part of the mind that exists eternally) finds another body or reality to exist - usually through the process of rebirth.

This programme is American and so can put a lot of people off. There should be more films like this made specifically for each culture and religion so that the core ideas can be explored in the context of that which the viewer is most comfortable with and most willing to push the boundaries and seek change.

"What the BLEEP Do We Know!?" resources:

http://www.whatthebleep.com/
http://www.thebleep.co.uk/

Karma Theory

Some ideas from cause and effect, our minds and similarity to other people (research needed to see if events and actions in a persons life map those of others by such things as looks, birthdate, origins, environment, past lives).

Also, ideas relating to parallel existence (large but finite quantum alternatives) where decision/action/effect slightly different. Each mind/viewpoint different and rise of ideas/theories from the quantum sea. Also, the journey of mind and boundaries of actions flowing within a karmic dimension. Arising of deja-vu and prediction to future actions and consequences.

Application to groups and society in past, present and future. Anthropic origin of existence required for consciousness - a physical environment would lack meaning and may not even exist without the observer.

The universe at large

A relatively simple insight into a possible idea for the shape and size of the universe. If the visible universe originates from a much larger universe and budded off from this at the quantum scale 14.6 billion years ago (or therabouts) and inflated to about the size of a softball (see figure 1) then it may be possible that the universe as seen from outside could still be that size. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Figure 1: Size of universe at end of inflation (from 'Cosmos', Astronomy collectors edition, 2006)

Firstly, it is highly likely that the universe beyond the visible horizon is fractal in extent. This is an extrapolation from the observation that our observable universe is fractal on large scales. From observing nature it is apparent that there are many examples such as the lungs, brain and trees that maximise surface area within a small volume. In a perfect system an infinite area could be held within a finite volume. So would it not be possible for a near infinite volume to be held within a small hyper-'volume'?

Secondly, to conserve available space and energy only the 3 dimensions of space and 1 of time needed for the universe to function are included in the visible universe. This has been true since our universe may have 'budded' from a larger hyper-universe (or multiverse, also known as the whole universe) and attained a separate causality (see figure 2). However, there are many other dimensions that are curled up remnants from the period of inflation. These may have been active until inflation ended and exist as other dimensional possibilities outside the observable universe (as a false vaccum). From outside, this budded (or pocket) universe would appear either frozen at its size at the end of inflation (but evolving inside) or disappear altogether (due to the transition to a real vacuum state). If the first case is true that an entity outside of the universe may influence it, and if the second case is true then it would be unreachable by physical methods and as isolated as we observe it.

Figure 2: Universes within universes (from 'Introducing Fractal Geometry', Lesmoir-Gordon et al, 2004)

There is much speculation about the shape of the universe. This is both the shape of the visible universe that we live in and of the complete universe of all existence. Since nature is lazy (many examples - blowing bubbles collapse to spherical shape, emergent systems from simple rules) it would be reasonable to expect the universe to be of a 'spherical' topology. That is, hyperspherical with 4 dimensions (3 space, 1 time) for the pocket universe we live in. This does depend on whether time can be treated as an equivalent dimension to space (this is likely). If our universe is not of this shape but any other such as the shape of a football then this would indicate that we are in a constructed universe rather than a totally natural one. In fact our universe could be in a lab watched by hyper-dimensional beings or an ornament (very unlikely but possible).

Regarding the nature and shape of the whole universe there are many theories ranging from perpetual creation of pocket universes from a false vacuum to creation by divine intervention. Yet, I think that the most likely is one that obeys quantum theory. Every decision, change in atomic spin, or flap of the wing of a butterfly could generate another pocket universe budding from the quantum potential of the flase vacuum. This does not mean that these do exist but that the information is there to create these new spaces if they are needed (by observation from future human or alien entity). Would nature be so lazy as to create our universe only because we are her to observe it? Maybe.

If we are alone in the universe then everything is natural. If we are not alone then things could have happened countless times before and will again. We may be by experiment but then isn't nature an experiment in herself? One point to consider here. Our theries become more and more elaborate as we find out more about life, the universe and everything but things appear to operate according to our latest fad or belief. This would apply to the computer program as much as the existence of God. Yet how would the false vacuum exist in the first place?