A philosophical worldview or belief system grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe. It is intended to be the 21st century successor to the ancient worldviews of Materialism and Idealism. An Update from Bronze Age to Information Age. It's also a Theory – of – Everything that covers, not just matter & energy, but also Life & Mind & Love.
“If matter, in all its forms, were nothing but mindless substance, then of course it would follow by mere definition that conscious material is impossible. But that is specifically the "question-begging presumption" I was referring to.” ___Janus
Post 147.November 25, 2025 . . . . .continued
Right Stuff to Evolve Consciousness
Thinking and Feeling Stuff
Like most scientists, I too presume that Mind naturally evolved from non-conscious physical predecessors — without supernatural intervention. But I've never seen any empirical evidence or philosophical theory that describe, step-by-step, how that transformation could have happened. So, lets see if we can update outdated Materialism with some new ideas. What is it about mundane Matter that provided the Right Stuff for evolution from cosmic bang to cosmos-scanning scientists? In what sense is the modern notion of Matter mind-like? In the early 20th century, the search for a fundamental material element of reality has swung & missed over & over again. And even hypothetical quarks show no sign of mental properties.
So, maybe it’s time to take a closer look at reality⁵, and to notice that the matter we see & touch is not the "funda-mental" element of reality or evolution. Instead, as Einstein concluded, time-causing Energy was the primal force behind space-time & evolution, that eventually shape-shifted into various change-causing agents (Gravity, Nuclear Forces, Thermal Energy, Electromagnetic Fields, etc). So, it seems obvious that whatever Causal Principle (possessing the right stuff) produced the Big Bang beginning and subsequent space-time evolution, could-and-did eventually cause Life & Mind processes to emerge. Unfortunately, details of the necessary critical intermediate stages (non-linear Phase Transitions⁶) have not yet been documented.
So I'm guessing that the non-sentient precursor of Mental Processes (e.g. linguistic) was more likely the non-spatial, massless stuff of Causation : Energy E in all its forms. Note that E = M C²has no symbol for matter. Even Mass M is only a mathematical measurement of resistance to Force, and C is a cosmological constant, not a measurement of a material object. Therefore, I can agree with both sides of the Matter-Mind argument, but with a twist : massless, spaceless Energy is capable of transforming into both Matter and Mind. But Consciousness is not a "separate, non-physical entity", it's an active meta-physical brain Process⁷, with no mass or inertia.
Therefore, in our search for a complete understanding of the real world, we may need to focus, not on the material stuff that our evolved senses are tuned to detect, but on the unique ability of humans to conceive principles & processes that we can’t see or touch. This approach assumes that Mind is not a product of the physical brain, but a procedure of conscious computation⁸ by an information-processing system. Hence, Consciousness may be merely an extension of cosmic Evolution.
5. What is Reality? : Materialism is the philo-sophical view that reality is composed exclusively of matter and energy, and that all phenomena, including consciousness and mental states, are reducible to physical processes. It posits that an objective reality governed by natural laws exists, and rejects super-natural or non-physical explanations. Key tenets include that the mind is a product of the brain, and that all events can be explained through material interactions. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=materialism+philosophy
6. Phase Transitions : Non-linear phase trans-itions are abrupt shifts in a system's behavior, different from gradual changes, where small input changes cause disproportionate or sudden reorganizations, like water suddenly freezing, but in complex systems such as optics, ecosystems, or particle physics. These chaotic & unpredictable transitions often involve positive feed-back, moving a system far from equilibrium into new stable states (attractors) or bifurcations, revealing emergent properties not seen in linear systems.
Quantum Field model of particle probability propagation
7. What is a Process? :
A.N. Whitehead defined his Process Philosophy in terms of immaterial “entities” that are discrete events of becoming, rather than static substances. “These actual occasions arise, synthesize data from the past, achieve satisfaction, and perish, forming a continuous flow of experience, with consciousness being a complex form of this universal process, emphasizing creativity, interconnection, and change as core metaphysical principles”.
Note : An entity is something that exists as itself. It does not need to be of material existence.
8. Computational Theory of Mind : In philosophy of mind, the computational theory of mind (CTM), also known as computation-alism, is a family of views that hold that the human mind is an information processing system and that cognition and consciousness together are a form of computation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_theory_of_mind
End of Blog Post 147
Quantum Probability Patterns Energy is not a thing, but a potential : a statistical measure of probability
Cosmic Causation : Energy + Information
“In essence, the Big Bang transformed a highly energetic, almost featureless state into the structured, information-rich cosmos we observe today, with energy providing the fuel and quantum randomness providing the initial blueprint.” https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=big+bang+%3A+energy+plus+information
How could Chaotic “randomness” create the “blueprint” for an orderly & organized Cosmos with a logical structure of natural Laws? Randomness does imply freedom for exploration of possibilities. But only purposeful, systematic, and intentional design can impart systematic order upon Chaos.
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