What’s the nature of the ‘Universal Mind’ & ‘Cosmic Consciousness’? What a profound question! The answer must of course be speculation & hypothesis. At best it’s a theory that requires much more investigation & analysis.
This however may be man’s greatest scientific & spiritual quest!
In simplistic terms, the Universal Mind would be responsible for processing & maintaining all the information received. We are of course referring to the whole Cosmos! This Universal Mind would have an ‘inherent intelligent capacity’ of great magnitude. This Cosmic Super-Intelligence could be thought of as a Cosmic Consciousness.
The Universal Mind is like a huge network of computers.
Here each separate processing unit or ‘node’ communicates with others remotely. The everyday analogy would be us accessing the Internet via a wireless link.
The most sophisticated computer network that scientists have designed is called an ‘artificial neural network’. This has high order Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) capacity!
Not only is this network comprised of multiple computer nodes; but nodes are also arranged in a hierarchy. There is a vertical hierarchy of processing levels, from least to most sophisticated. Nodes of a similar quality are also linked together horizontally.
In this neural network system, each separate node receives input from a lower-order node and then modifies this using its own experience & processing power. It then forwards this processed data or ‘Information’ on to ‘similar order’ surrounding nodes and then on to higher order nodes. These in turn do the same thing! This processing & input modification continues up the hierarchical chain.
Such a neural network with artificial intelligence capacity can solve complex problems using ‘its experience’.
The whole system ‘learns’ to anticipate what the most appropriate input & response should be! Even if it hasn’t directly encountered that situation before! So, it has sophisticated predictive capacity or ‘artificial intelligence’!
The computing power of the whole neural network is also much greater than the sum of its individual nodes or sub-computers. Imagine the computing power available if each such node itself was also a quantum super-computer!
Imagine many such quantum supercomputers in a neural network system the size of the whole Universe!
Could that be what the Universal Mind really is?
If the Universe does function as a massive & intelligent neural network, what comprises the individual nodes? What are those separate computers that that act as the individual input & processing units? Could these nodes include us as individual human beings? Could input to this Universal Neural Network include all sentient life forms?
Let’s next consider whether any scientific evidence exists for our human brain & cells functioning at such a quantum level…
First, we know that the computing capacity of the human brain is remarkable for its size. It’s certainly comparable to a quantum computer in many ways!
Second, we know that every cell of the human brain & body has a sophisticated system of micro-tubules. These are associated with membrane surfaces. We can see these with our powerful electron microscopes! These could act as ‘information gates’ for communication at the quantum level.
If individual humans were each such a computing node, our brain would serve as the computer’s ‘micro-processor’. Our human body would power the local node and provide direct sensory input. It would also act as the transmitter & ‘wi-fi antenna’.
In terms of our brain we would call sorted data ‘knowledge’. A more processed & compressed form of this would be termed ‘wisdom’.
Imagine the problem-solving power and ‘data storage’ capacity of a quantum neural network the size of the whole Universe.
The computing power of such an ‘intelligent system’ the size of the known Universe would indeed be astronomical!
Just try to envisage just the Virtual Reality capability of such a Universe wide computer network. That would be more than enough to facilitate complex & multiple complex virtual reality scenarios. These could all be available simultaneously! We could potentially, in real time, choose from a multitude of coexistent virtual possibilities. This might occur right down to the quantum level.
Could we already be living in such a Virtual Reality? What would be the implication of this? Knowing this, what should we do? How should we modify our lives? What would you do?
This challenging & profound discussion continues in Part 6 which is the last instalment of this series called ‘ALL ABOUT NOTHING: A holistic perspective on Mind, Matter & Mankind.’
The sub-title of the final blog post in this series is ‘Part 6. All about OUR CHOICE: It’s our Virtual Reality!’.