Super vs. Supra Consciousness

Is consciousness a product of the way our brains are wired? Or, is our brain a receiver of a greater consciousness? Is consciousness simply a by-product of evolution? Does a dog have a conscious level? Does a reptile? How about a tree? Alternatively, is our brain simply a more advanced receiver of something greater? Is the purpose of evolution of improve the receiver? As computers continue to advance will a computer eventually receive this consciousness? If it does happen, will a computer be considered “alive?” What about subconscious and unconscious thought processes? Will a computer need to dream?

We’re moving into a new phase of our relationship with computers. Gone are the days of simple automation of menial physical tasks. Even knowledge workers are finding themselves displaced by computer algorithms. Anyone in financial services knows how trading and portfolio management have evolved to displace knowledge workers. Apparently the new phase will be about computer augmentation of human tasks. Essentially the argument is using machines to deepen the abilities of humans. But, what does that mean about where we are headed? Will we be permanently wired into computer networks? (My daughters seem to be headed that way at times) Will one day computers write blogs about the latest developments in nanotechnology? Perhaps. Will they write novels? Hard to rule out completely.

Rolling the clock forward a few millennia (I like to take a long, long term approach), we may find a world in which computers (call them silicon life forms) and traditional humans (call them organic) look and act quite similar. Maybe they even have equal “life” rights under the laws of the galaxy. Now what? Are humans obsolete? Kicked to the curb with a cup in our blistered hands hoping some benevolent silicon life form throws its unneeded piece of nourishment towards us? Worse, some Terminator-like future in which we are actively battling one another for supremacy?

These become deep questions. What is life? What is the essence of humanity? If humanity is about processing information and collecting objects, well then I don’t see much difference between silicon life and organic. In fact, if our essence is simply internal circuitry that drives us to collect and manage objects then we’re likely going to compete more and more with silicon life forms as they become more adept at, well, that definition of “living.”

The management of objects by both organic and silicon life form could be termed the “super conscious.” Silicon augments organic capabilities, such as improved information sharing and more rapid processing capabilities. Already our organic thoughts are shared immediately with the world when we post ideas on social networks. Silicon enables improved communication and processing, and humanity is better off as coordination of ideas improves. Organic life argues it is the creative side, like a right-left brain breakdown. But, will creativity eventually become the realm of computers as well? If so, what then? If not, why not?

Let’s take a different approach. Does this movement towards the super conscious pull us away from our organic essence? From our creative source? Which is what exactly? Better wiring? Or, is that something a connection to something greater? Maybe the augmentation enhances our connection to our creative source. I’m certainly not arguing we should go back to the woods and shun all electronic devices. I’m just saying are we not spending enough time understanding another network or sorts? One that defines us and has brought us to our current level. Call this the “supra conscious” and puts our brain as either the creator of it or a receiver of it.

The supra conscious, or collective consciousness among life, is not a new idea or even without scientific underpinnings from quantum theory. Many spiritual leaders believe in it. Think of it as we are all connected to something greater. A spiritual side if that resonates, another dimension for the cosmologists in the audience, entanglement for the particle physicists, a collective subconscious for the psychologists.

The Super versus Supra Consciousness tension is central to the novel Evolved. Two paths to save humanity. One rooted firmly in observation, testing and science; the other a more difficult uncharted and almost forgotten inner path. How Amos, the protagonist, handles this choice determines the fate of humanity.

These questions may help us understand ourselves a little better. It has helped me.

Cosmology Thoughts

Bubble Universes, Multi-universes, D-Branes, and others – there are no shortage of theories about how our universe is structured. Like most economic forecasts, they are probably all wrong (sorry, my inner financial analyst couldn’t resist). This is no slam of the great minds of our time, it is simply a reflection of how little we really know about the universe. The good news is new information should be collected when new discoveries are made about particle physics with the recently revved up Large Hadron Collider, and the new observations of the universe are made with the launch of new satellites. (Not to mention the current fly-by of Pluto by New Horizons)

Until the great minds of our time unravel the mysteries of our reality, us mere mortals must choose an argument. For me, D-branes made the most sense. Dr. Lisa Randall, a particle physicist, offers a spoon feeding of the theory, allowing my simple mind to grasp it. Intuitively the theory makes more sense to me, as opposed to theories like multi-universes in which every possibility exists at once. Finally, Dr. Randall dangled some lovely worm (holes) in front of an aspirational science fiction writer.

D-Branes, or simply branes, is an effort to combine the mathematical beauty (so I’m told) of string theory with the science of observation of particle physics and the Standard Model. The brane we are confined to may have around 96% of dark matter (matter we cannot see) within it, offering another rich avenue to explore in science fiction story-telling. What makes it interesting for me is the theory these branes can warp and exist in a higher dimensional bulk (er, universe). When writing Evolved, this gave me a rich texture for the environment combined with opportunities to explore higher dimensions. It also gave me an interesting theory about two branes, or a separate energy field, interacting and causing our reality, or the Big Bang.

Warping means the brane itself can have a curvature to it. Taking this one step further into the fiction, I imagined a brane with a rich texture of mountain ranges on it. From our perspective held within the brane we cannot see these ridges. But, once identified they provide short cuts when traveling within the brane. Think of travelers through a mountain range with a map that enables them to choose the easiest path. More interesting, these ridges provide short cuts for particles that are only loosely bound to the brane. Neutrinos are strange particles that seem to only weakly interact with mass. I used neutrinos as a vehicle to travel between ridges. At this point I realize I’m moving further into fiction, but I made a great deal of effort to have at least an argument behind the fiction.

After all, part of the fun of Science Fiction is letting the mind wander over possibilities.

[Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

Present State

The challenge of Presence is a big part of Evolved. Presence both in the spatial and temporal sense. Mahayana Buddhism talks about Zen through meditation, a way of seeking emptiness for enlightenment. Judaism describes God in one form as Present. There is something special about the present, being present. In our world we tend to live in the past, highlighted by recent neurological studies focused on the time lag between subconscious and conscious thought.

The universe in Evolved is split into two (what we think of as reality and something else) through the interaction of a ten dimensional brane with a field of resistance. The mind of the protagonist, the Evolved, strives to make two back into one.  While writing Evolved I danced around the concept of presence through many re-writes, approaching it from a cosmological, quantum, philosophical, neurological and then psychological angle. When I finally felt like I had wrestled the concept into something that made sense, I read Martin Buber’s “I and Thou” and Richard Rohr’s “Immortal Diamond.” They approached this concept from a religious and spiritual perspective. Their message came together with what I had written like a thunder clap in my head. Richard Rohr discusses Presence from the Christian faith:

In some ways, presence is the “one thing necessary” (Luke 10:42), and perhaps the hardest thing of all. Just try to keep your heart open, your mind without division or resistance, and your body not somewhere else. Such simple presence is the practical, daily task of all mature religion and all spiritual disciplines. Once you are “present and accounted for,” you grow from everything, even the problematic and difficult things. If your presence is wrong, you will not recognize the Real Presence even in the Eucharist. The Presence will be there–it always is–but you won’t be. I love to say that it has been much easier for Jesus to teach bread and wine what it is than to teach humans, who always resist their deepest and simplest identity.

– Richard Rohr

Silicon Life in Evolved

What defines life is a central question in Evolved. Robots and humans have equal rights in the distant future of Evolved. Robots are all but indistinguishable from humans in appearance, are highly creative, dexterous, and even emotional. The robots/ androids in Evolved are not like Data from Star Trek, a character that always fascinated me, but perhaps somewhat like the artificial life in Blade Runner.

Moving past the term robot, android or other euphemism for “not life,” the world in Evolved separates into silicon and organic life. The two life forms augment one another, blend intimately so that it is unclear where one ends and the other begins. This blending has had a profound effect on society, which is almost completely atheist and mindfully driven. It has been an interesting thought experiment to consider such a world while minimizing many of the biases prevalent today. What came out may surprise you!

The obvious difference between organic and silicon life is the way each is created. Silicon life is quite adept at the mechanics of sex but is unable to create the spark of life that grows into a fully formed life form. There is tension between the two, much like racism or sexism exist in the world today with both sides holding their own notions about the other. Silicon life is theoretically immortal, a source of envy for many organic life forms. However, silicon life seems to miss a spark of true essence that lies within organic life. What may be surprising is that organic life seems intent on emulating silicon life, even at the risk of extinguishing that spark.

On Lake of the Woods life is bountiful. I love watching and listening to its energy and beauty. Laughing at some of its absurdity. While driving the boat I watched a pelican glide down to the water for a landing. I love pelicans. They soar up high, completing slow spirals in the sky. Yet when this one pelican came gliding in smoothly for a water landing the baggy underside of its beak sailed awkwardly in the wind. Its legs hung like granny legs dangling from a parachute. His wings were the definition of grace. Its legs, not so much. Life is often awkward.

Is life simply a conscious intrusion into this strange three spatial dimension reality of ours? Life bumbles around with only one goal: to prolong and expand its access to this reality in hopes it can evolve it to where re-unification with its larger self is possible? Maybe that defines life, its meaning.

Nested Meanings

Two is better than one, as the saying goes. This seems true from the smallest to the largest scale. Did you know particles in quantum theory like photons are monogamous? Only two can become entangled, not three. Entangled particles are connected in a way not completely understood by physicists, but basically it means the measurement of one determines the value of the entangled particle, no matter the distance separating them. Breaking the entanglement is possible, but costs energy. It is one of the stranger and least intuitive aspects of quantum theory, and also one that has proven vexing when scientists have tried to integrate the theory of general relativity with quantum theory.

Bridging quantum theory and the theory of relativity has been an on-going effort, resulting in fields of study like string theory. String theory replaces particles with loops and strands, creating a mathematical basis allowing for the two theories to combine, but not without contradictions. String theory requires higher dimension objects called D-branes to solve some of the contradictions between quantum and relativity. String theory suggests D-branes (branes for short) are ten dimensions, although there are theories that imply many more dimensions are necessary. Dr. Randall at Harvard does a great job pulling it together in a readable manner.

Before your brain cramps, simply think of a dimension as a necessary descriptor to describe your location precisely. In the reality we understand, we can locate every particle by its three spatial dimensions and time. But let’s say we found a way to shift gravitational force, holding everything else constant. Well then, we’d need another descriptor, or dimension, in order to describe our location precisely.

In the book Evolved the universe is based on ten dimensional branes within a higher dimension bulk universe. Think of it as objects floating in space. Humanity is in a four dimensional reality (three spatial plus time) within the ten dimensional brane. The Big Bang was the point when the brane (referred to as “The One” in the book) collided with a resistance field in the higher dimension bulk universe, causing the conversion of energy to mass in three spatial dimensions and dividing the reality we understand from the remaining dimensions held within the brane. It is this theme of division, and its counter force of unification, that runs through Evolved. If you look at the Evolved symbol you’ll see a caret-like symbol with a vertical line above it. This is the ‘Two into One’ theme. A lot more to the symbol, but let’s leave it at that for now.

If division was the split of one into two, unification is the effort of making two into one. Our world is defined by the tension between these opposing aspects. I find it interesting you see this unification at the quantum level through entanglement. In our life the will to unify surrounds us. The Rusty Blackbirds reminded my daughters and I of unification yesterday as they squawked at our presence near their three babies in their nest under the eave of the shed by the dock. The Loons watching us closely as we rowed near their nest with eggs was another reminder, as was the startled Eastern Phoebe flapping out of her nest with eggs when we opened the back door. Of course, the Bald Eagles swooping over our shed on their way to their nest where junior typically perches on the edge is a dramatic reminder.

Makes you wonder if evolution is simply “The One” trying to reunify itself in a divisive reality…