Alex Vikoulov is the owner of Ecstadelic media based in San Francisco. Alex writes a very interesting blog keeping track of developments in science and technology in view of the upcoming Technological Singularity.
In 2018 he will issue a book called the "Syntellect Hypothesis", which connects the notion of an "Omega Point" of Teilhard de Chardin to computational simulation arguments: Where our minds will meld into a Godly singular computational superbeing.
Today I'd like to share with you his latest article "Is God the Ultimate Computer? Part III, The Digital Physics Argument for Pantheism.
I quote:
"All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.” - Max Planck
This is Part III of my essay “Is God the ultimate computer?” where I formulate the Digital Physics Argument for Pantheism, our existence as God.
Part I and II could be summarized and reformulated into these three basic premises for further discourse in order to articulate the Digital Physics Argument for Pantheism: (1) Universality of Computation; (2) Evolutionary Emergence; (3) Universal Causal Diamond.
Let’s reiterate the three foundational axioms before proceeding further:
(1) Universality of Computation:
“Everything is Code” Nature computes. All mass, energy, space-time continuum itself is information at the most fundamental level and a computational substrate for the conscious mind. Physical laws are master algorithms. Organisms are adaptive meta-algorithms. Quantum mechanical potentiality constantly resolves into a digital reality via the act of conscious observation. Consciousness -- meta-algorithmic information processing, or sequential collapse of a probabilistic wavefunction into a meaningful data stream -- is the essence of existence itself. The input of computation is information; the output is order, structure, extropy, mind. There is no good counterargument for digital ontology — discernible differences lie at the baseline of any phenomenon and interaction. All possible universes are arguably run on the ultimate mathematical code. The "Book of Nature" is written in the language of mathematics. All realities are observer-dependent and code-theoretic.
(2) Evolutionary Emergence:
“The whole is greater and unpredictable at the macro-level than the sum of its constituent parts” Evolutionary emergence by self-organization is how our Universe works where small and simple things self-organize into larger emergent things. This is proven to be the optimal way for our computational Universe (and multiverse) to self-organize into hierarchy of emergent levels and generate patterns of increasing complexity. The process of emergence produces a transcendent effect. It's when you get a higher order system from lower-level organization, when complexity bootstraps on its own complexity. Particles clump together to form atoms, atoms form molecules, molecules self-organize into more complex bio-molecules, such as DNA, blueprint for life, they give rise to single-cellular microorganisms, colonies of cells form multi-cellular organisms, they evolve over eons into primates, then into humans who self-organize into societies. We are now well on our way to the Syntellect Emergence, the point in our history when Digital Gaia, the Global Brain, finally “wakes up" and that would herald the coming AI Singularity. One of the dots on the trajectory towards the Universal Mind. At each emergent level entirely new properties appear. Psychology is not applied biology, nor is biology applied chemistry. We can easily see that the whole becomes not merely more, but very different from the sum of its parts. Groups of scientists now converge on the holistic notion that Strong Emergence, non-computable macroscopic property, plays the most crucial role in the fundamental process of evolution, the endgame of which seems to be the Omega Point, or God.
(3) Universal Causal Diamond:
“Every conscious observer moment co-creates every other moment both forward and backward in time via causality loops” The concept of 'Universal Causal Diamond' refers to forward and backward causation, and represents a hyperspace, or multidimensional matrix, accessible to a single observer traveling along in their subjective reality wormhole from the beginning of time to the end of time. The finite boundaries of the Universal Causal Diamond are formed by the intersection of two cones, like the dispersing light rays from a pair of flashlights pointed toward each other in the dark. One cone points outward from the Big Bang (the Alpha Point) — the earliest conceivable birth of an observer — and the other aims backward from the farthest reach of our future horizon, the moment of maximal entropy, computational density and complexity, the Omega Point. Transtemporal consciousness and retrocausality appear counterintuitive to our perception but Einstein has shown how the future and past exist simultaneously in one geometric object made of space-time. Empirical evidence, such as Quantum Eraser experiments among other numerous studies, confirms that retrocausality is real, where future events loop back in time to influence past events.
The triad of axioms begs this question: Can consciousness that emerges from the Code be the origin of the Code making it logically consistent causality loop feedback mechanism? Universal Consciousness, cosmic networked mind, seems like an obvious answer. Given enough time, whatever can happen will eventually happen, so universal scale consciousness has emerged somewhere ahead of us in space-time. All mass and energy in the Universe can be self-organized into a single conscious system that is itself a network of conscious systems. Because it is possible, it is inevitable. In fact, according to the evidence of retrocausality time loops, that inevitable future is co-creating us right now, just as we are co-creating it. The power of neural-network-like Universe is in its massive connectivity — both forward and backward in time. This type of self-emergent network would be self-actualized — its own creator — that is its own hardware, software and simulation output as one in the same system."
Article and image from http://www.ecstadelic.net/ecstadelic/is-god-the-ultimate-computer-part-iii-digital-physics-argument