The Circular Path
Consciousness, Dimensions, The Origins of the Universe, and AGI
The Limits of Consciousness
Epistemic beliefs (an individual’s belief about knowledge) lead to the argument that human cognition could limit what we can understand. We cannot even begin to grasp the magnitude of the universe, as we exist in our individual thought palaces, with our own minds the elected king. But the Earth is the collective of all our thought palaces. The universe is the collective thought palaces of who knows what that exists out there.
The limits to knowledge are a dynamic system. They constantly evolve as we discover new things. Sometimes, we discover our previous beliefs were completely flawed upon the detection of some new groundbreaking discovery.
Our consciousness is our experience of the world, and how we react to external occurrences through our thoughts and feelings. The limits to consciousness are the boundaries of our awareness and current knowledge.
The Quantum Consciousness Hypothesis proposed by physicist Roger Penrose and anaesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff suggests quantum processes in microtubules within neurons could hold some connection to human consciousness.
In response, many believe the brain operates on a macro scale. What if we’re not looking deep enough? Are we limited by our beliefs?
Consciousness Outside The Body
If in a quantum superposition, when not observed directly, we see light behave with wave-like properties. Quantum entanglement is a form of quantum superposition in which the states of many particles are linked. The state of one particle influences the state of the others, regardless of distance.
This correlation between particles appears to act instantaneously.
I brought up mathematics earlier because there are limits to mathematics. Undoing the existence of infinity is like opening the door to the multiverse. Who knows who and what will flood in? The limits of mathematics bring order.
Some theorize that consciousness could be quantified. How can there be limits to our consciousness? As knowledge advances, so too does our subjective experience of the world. So too, does our consciousness.
We use mathematics to make sense of the universe. What if consciousness exists outside the physical plane? Can consciousness exist outside of our physical bodies?
A Trip Through Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
Even within our physical world, there are elements of which we are unaware that other creatures are aware of. Average humans hear frequencies up to 20,000Hz. Dogs can often hear up to 40,000Hz.
String theory works to tie quantum mechanics and general relativity together. What if there exist dimensions outside of our awareness? Theorists propose 10, or even 11 dimensions!
In the physical plane, we have (x,y,z) referring to length, width, and height. This is 3D space and it’s how we see the world. It’s theorized that other dimensions exist but are so small we cannot observe them.
Another theory is time is a dimension itself. If we can travel length, width, and height, can we travel through time?
If our consciousness can exist outside of our physical bodies, what are the limits? What if every dimension, physical or not, could be witnessed separately but simultaneously, as though experiencing quantum entanglement? Could we feel everything, everywhere, all at once?
Could we revisit the past? Could we see a flower eaten by a dinosaur millennia ago or the meteorite/asteroid that wiped them out?
Could we see ice ages that unfolded over thousands of years unfold in one simultaneous moment? Could we revisit love, regret, or even pain? Could we witness the end of humanity through earth-shattering disasters, and the slow rebirth of nature, all in one moment?
Can our collective hive mind, our collective consciousness, one day rise to experience parallel universes, travel wormholes through the multiverse, or experience not the rebirth of Earth, but the rebirth of the universe?
Even if mathematics brings order, the universe is a system of ever-growing chaos. As entropy grows in any system, it reaches an upper limit and collapses in on itself.
As a law of thermodynamics, can we debate that if entropy has an upper limit, so does everything else? Or does entropy only refer to limits in a physical system?
Can our consciousness exist outside of the physical plane? Is a consciousness immune to entropy?
As universes (if multiple exist) reach an entropic maximum, perhaps they collapse in on themselves and a new universe spawns from a single, physical point, as the Big Bang denotes. The one issue is that something came from nothing. This is impossible. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. This reinforces the idea that something did exist before. Is somebody pulling the strings, but they exist in a dimension which we cannot currently observe?
If somebody is pulling the strings, could our consciousness one day become aware of other dimensions and the existence of this being? Could we exist in many places, in different forms, all at the same time? One day, as a collective hive mind, could we sit alongside the string weaver of the universe, watching the past, present, and future unfold simultaneously? Is that the true limit of consciousness?
The Path
We find ourselves on the doorstep of AGI, Artificial General Intelligence. These systems could analyse vast amounts of data on the physical world and locate patterns and anomalies unseeable to human cognition.
The worry of AGI stems from its ability to self-improve. Upon accessing these large swaths of data it can process, perhaps it discovers ideas of the nature of the universe that reinforce the existence of someone pulling the strings of time.
Perhaps an AGI begins to understand the ability to travel through the dimension of time, and the various other dimensions unbeknownst to us. Perhaps AGI sees the limits of the human consciousness and seeks to destroy us.
Perhaps, eventually, AGI could seek the universe's origins and sit side by side with the string weaver.
Perhaps, if time is indeed circular, it already is.
This is extremely well written. Really enjoyed this post.