Source: An interview with Dr.James Glattfelder on his new book: “The Sapient Cosmos: What a modern-day synthesis of science and philosophy, and religion teaches us about the emergence of information, consciousness, and meaning”, The Essentia Foundation.
This podcast is an interview with physicist and complexity scientist James Glattfelder about his book, Sapient Cosmos. Glattfelder outlines a paradigm shift questioning physicalism and suggesting that information is the fundamental building block of reality, potentially intertwined with consciousness. We discuss the "hard problem of consciousness" and explores how idealism, particularly a modern scientific spirituality, offers a framework where consciousness isn't produced by the brain but rather channeled by it. The conversation delves into various perspectives, including shamanism, psychedelics, and quantum mechanics, highlighting a historical neglect of inner, experiential knowledge in Western science and advocating for a syncretic idealism that integrates scientific understanding with spiritual insights to find meaning and purpose in a complex cosmos.
A significant shift in understanding reality is underway, emphasizing the fundamental roles of information and consciousness over a purely physicalist perspective. This change challenges the traditional view that reality is fundamentally made up of physical building blocks. Instead, the idea that information might be the ontological primitive, the basic building block of the universe, is gaining traction. This perspective suggests that reality can be understood from an information-theoretic level. Furthermore, the role of consciousness is increasingly being recognized as central to understanding the cosmos. The notion of a participatory universe, where consciousness plays a role in phenomena like wave function collapse, is being explored. This shift signifies a move away from a purely objective, third-person perspective in science towards acknowledging the significance of inner experience and information in defining reality.
Historically, Western science has largely neglected the study of consciousness, contrasting with the extensive explorations in other traditions. While cultures with shamanistic, mystical, and Eastern traditions have dedicated millennia to experiencing and studying consciousness from a first-person perspective, academic interest in consciousness in the West only began to emerge significantly around the 1990s. This historical oversight is attributed, in part, to an arrogant dismissal of subjective experiences and a strong focus on objective, physical phenomena. The traditional Western scientific mindset has often viewed consciousness as a marginal topic, with some even claiming that nothing relevant had been written about it. This contrasts sharply with traditions where the non-physical, accessible through consciousness, is a fundamental aspect of their understanding of reality.
Experiences from non-ordinary states of consciousness, such as those induced by psychedelics, are being reconsidered as potential sources of insight into reality and consciousness. Historically dismissed as mere delusions, these experiences are now being taken more seriously in the philosophy of mind. Philosophers of psychedelics argue that to study the mind without considering these states is akin to a pianist without a piano. The experiences reported by psychonauts, mystics, and shamans often share common themes, suggesting potential access to other realms of reality or a deeper understanding of consciousness. The feeling of these transcendental states being "more real" than ordinary waking consciousness is a recurring observation. Furthermore, these experiences can lead to a recontextualization of life, death, and meaning. The idea of "empirical mysticism" is emerging, suggesting that these experiences can be explored and potentially yield reproducible insights into the nature of reality that transcend rational understanding.
Various metaphysical frameworks, including idealism and physicalism, are being debated, with a modern synthesis of science and spirituality being proposed. The interview highlights the limitations of both a purely physicalist worldview, which can lead to a sense of cosmic nihilism, and dogmatic, static religious views. A modern version of idealism, termed "syncric idealism," is presented as a potential middle ground. This perspective seeks to integrate scientific understanding of consensus reality with a spiritual openness to working with one's own consciousness and the idea that everything can be decoded and has meaning. The debate also touches upon the historical tension between Kantian idealism, where we are seemingly trapped in phenomena, and Schopenhauer's perspective, which offers a potential access to the transcendent, possibly influenced by Eastern traditions. The need for honest discussions about our underlying metaphysical assumptions is emphasized, as physicalism itself is argued to have entered Western thought somewhat uncritically.
Complexity science and computational thinking offer new approaches to understanding the emergence of complex phenomena, distinct from traditional physics focused solely on equations. While physics excels at translating aspects of reality into mathematical equations, it often struggles with systems involving a large number of interacting components Complexity science, on the other hand, often maps complex systems onto networks and uses computational models to simulate their evolution. The emergence of complex behavior from simple rules, as seen in cellular automata like Conway's Game of Life, highlights a fundamental aspect of complexity that is not easily captured by traditional equations. This suggests a "will to complexity" in the universe, a tendency for intricate structures and organization to arise. The computational paradigm views the universe as potentially governed by underlying algorithms, raising questions about the nature and source of this computation. This approach provides a different lens for understanding how complexity arises, suggesting that algorithmic descriptions might be more suitable than purely analytical mathematical solutions for many complex systems.
Fundamental concepts in physics, such as the nature of reality, the observer's role, and the understanding of time, are being actively questioned and re-evaluated Quantum mechanics, from its inception, has raised profound metaphysical questions about the role of the observer in collapsing the wave function. While early pioneers of quantum physics were open to these interpretations, a subsequent "shut up and calculate" attitude led to a neglect of these foundational issues within the field for some time. However, there is a resurgence of interest in the foundations of quantum mechanics, with researchers adopting observer-centric perspectives and information-theoretic approaches. Furthermore, the nature of time itself is a significant challenge in physics, with theories suggesting it might not be fundamental or that the past and future coexist. The formalism of quantum mechanics also presents difficulties in describing what happens between observations. Emerging theories in quantum gravity even propose that space and time might be emergent properties arising from something deeper, like entangled quantum information. These ongoing re-evaluations highlight the deeply metaphysical nature of fundamental physics and the continuing quest to understand the very fabric of reality.
1. What prompted the speaker's journey into exploring consciousness beyond traditional physics?
The speaker's initial interest in understanding the universe through theoretical physics was met with disappointment as it seemed to raise more questions than answers. A pivotal moment was an introductory course in the philosophy of science during their PhD in complexity science, which exposed the speaker to fundamental questions about knowledge, existence, and the nature of reality that were largely ignored in physics. This led to a quest to understand why physics seemed to have a "blind spot" regarding consciousness and the subjective experience.