EF Interviews Archieven | Page 2 of 4

Quantum fields are conscious, says the inventor of the microprocessor

Posted on 2025-01-312025-02-03 by Hans Busstra, MA

Quantum fields are conscious, says the inventor of the microprocessor

Seeing | Metaphysics | 2025-01-31

Hans Busstra, MA

Federico Faggin

CPU inventor and physicist Federico Faggin, together with Prof. Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano, proposes that consciousness is not an emergent property of the brain, but a fundamental aspect of reality itself: quantum fields are conscious and have free will. In this theory, our physical body is a quantum-classical ‘machine,’ operated by free will decisions of quantum fields. Faggin calls the theory ‘Quantum Information Panpsychism’ (QIP) and claims that it can give us testable predictions in the near future. If the theory is correct, it not only will be the most accurate theory of consciousness, it will also solve mysteries around the interpretation of quantum mechanics.

“Hard Problem and Free Will: an information-theoretical approach,” Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano and Federico Faggin:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2012.06580

Federico’s book “Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature” can be ordered here:
https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/essentia-books/our-books/irreducible-consciousness-life-computers-human-nature

Our previous videos with Federico Faggin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssE4h70qKWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nOtLj8UYCw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVS3-NDUC0M

00:00 Intro 03:20 Federico’s Personal Experience
09:03 The New Theory: Biology vs Computers
21:05 What is a particle?
22:11 The Quantum vs the Classical world
33:48 Can we explain quantum mechanics in a materialist worldview?
36:48 Free will an illusion? Why do we ask this question?
40:32 Joining Science & Spirituality
45:19 Reflections on Donald Hoffmanns Theory
47:40 Will You Prove This?
51:04 Will Al Be Better Than Us?
54:10 Where Could This Theory Lead Us?
57:34 If We Are All One, How Does Seperation Work?
1:03:10 What Happens When We Die?
1:11:26 How Quantum Information Panpsychism Is Fundamentally Different Then Classical Panpsychism
1:13:07 Is there An End-Point To The Universe?
1:13:55 Why Is Space Expanding Exponentially?
1:15:41 Resonance & Purpose

Consciousness without neurons? Evidence and implications of out of body experiences

Posted on 2025-01-172025-01-18 by Natalia Vorontsova, MA

Consciousness without neurons? Evidence and implications of out of body experiences

Seeing | Neuroscience | 2025-01-17

Natalia Vorontsova, MA

Prof. Marjorie Woollacott, PhD

In this wide-ranging interview with Natalia Vorontsova, Professor Marjorie Woollacott draws remarkable parallels between 9th-10th century Kashmiri Shaivism and modern idealism, pointing to the fundamental and irreducible nature of consciousness. Moreover, her study of near-death experiences empirically supports this very hypothesis of the existence of a fundamental consciousness without neurons and beyond our five senses. This is an open conversation about life, death, and who we really are as ‘points of consciousness.’

Reference literature and online resources:
https://marjoriewoollacott.com/
https://www.aapsglobal.com/
https://spiritual-awakenings.net/the-book/

Books:
Motor Control: Translating Research into Clinical Practice, by A. Shumway-Cook, M.H. Woollacott
Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind, by M.H. Woollacott
Spiritual Awakenings, ed. M.H. Woollacott, D.Lorimer
Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature, by F. Faggin
Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives, by Jim B. Tucker
Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, by Ian Stevenson

Papers:
Williams, B, Woollacott, MH. Conceptual cognitions and awakening: Insights from non-dual Saivism and neuroscience. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 53: 119-139, 2021.
Woollacott M, Peyton B. Verified account of near-death experience in a physician who survived cardiac arrest. Explore (NY). 2020 Mar 19: S1550-8307(20)30111-7. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2020.03.005. Online ahead of print.PMID: 32245708.
Schwartz GE, Woollacott M, Schwartz SA, Baruss I, Beauregard M, Dossey L, Kafatos M, Miller L, Mossbridge J, Radin D, Tart C. The Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences: Integrating Consciousness into Mainstream Science. Explore (NY). 2018 Mar – Apr;14 ( 2):111-113. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2017.12.006.
Woollacott M, Roe CA, Cooper CE, Lorimer D, Elsaesser E. Perceptual phenomena associated with spontaneous experiences of after-death communication: Analysis of visual, tactile, auditory and olfactory sensations. Explore (NY). 2021 Feb 23:S1550-8307(21)00042-2. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2021.02.006.

Morphic fields: Nature’s hidden memory?

Posted on 2025-01-03 by Natalia Vorontsova, MA

Morphic fields: Nature’s hidden memory?

Seeing | Biology | 2025-01-03

Natalia Vorontsova, MA

Rupert Sheldrake, PhD

Can morphic resonance help explain the problem of missing heritability and why memories have not been found in the brain? And are ‘morphic fields’ the same thing as Michael Levin’s bioelectric ‘cognitive glue’? In this interview, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake discusses with Natalia Vorontsova his theory of morphic fields and its implications for our understanding of the mysteries of nature. Dr. Sheldrake is often called a most original thinker, perhaps because throughout his career he has managed to combine open-mindedness with critical scientific thinking.

They ‘told’ cancer to stop, and it did: The science and philosophical implications of bioelectric fields

Posted on 2024-12-28 by Hans Busstra, MA

They ‘told’ cancer to stop, and it did: The science and philosophical implications of bioelectric fields

Seeing | Biology | 2024-12-28

Hans Busstra, MA

Prof. Michael Levin, PhD

‘Talking’ to cells without influencing genes or molecules: it can be done by influencing bioelectric fields. By manipulating the bioelectric fields in organisms like planaria and tadpoles, Prof. Michael Levin has shown how eyes and other organs can grow in unconventional locations, how planaria can be ‘told’ to grow two heads, and perhaps most importantly: how cancer cells can be ‘told’ to stop growing in frogs. These promising experiments might lead to groundbreaking new therapeutics. The importance of the pioneering empirical work of Prof. Michael Levin at Tufts University, on the intersection of bioelectricity, regeneration, and cognition, can hardly be overstated. Philosophically, his work has deep implications for how we think about evolution, cognition and consciousness.

In 2020, Levin’s Lab created so-called Zenobots, programmable, living organisms made from frog cells (Xenopus laevis), designed to perform specific tasks such as movement or carrying objects. They represent a fusion of biology and robotics, created by assembling cells into novel, self-organizing structures guided by bioelectric signals. In trying to make sense of what his work on Zenobots points to, Levin regards evolution as the process whereby nature explores a Platonic realm of possibilities, ‘hardware configurations’ that, in a sense, are pre-existing and waiting to be discovered. And when it comes to intelligence, Levin sees only collective intelligence, in the sense that all intelligent lifeforms we know of are structured as sets of cells. Therefore, we ourselves could also very well be part of a larger intelligence.

The end of physics as we know it?

Posted on 2024-11-152024-11-15 by Hans Busstra, MA

The end of physics as we know it?

Seeing | Quantum Physics | 2024-11-15

Hans Busstra, MA

Prof. Caslav Brukner, PhD

Prof. Renato Renner, PhD

Eric Cavalcanti, PhD

We’re moving our main publication day from Sunday to Friday, so you can enjoy our material over the weekend. And to start well, today we have one of the most important videos we’ve produced thus far. We’re confident you will enjoy it!

The video features Prof. Dr. Caslav Brukner, Prof. Dr. Renato Renner and Dr. Eric Cavalcanti, who just won the Paul Ehrenfest Best Paper Award for Quantum Foundations. Their different no-go theorems make us reconsider the fundamental nature of reality. Bell’s theorem in quantum mechanics already confronted us with the fact that locality and ‘physical realism,’ in the sense that particles have predetermined physical properties prior to measurement, cannot both be true. But in certain variations of the Wigner’s Friend thought experiment an additional metaphysical assumption is now also put in question: the absoluteness of facts. In different words: can we safely assume that a measurement outcome for one observer is a measurement for all observers?

When even awareness stops: New meditation research

Posted on 2024-10-272024-10-28 by Natalia Vorontsova, MA

When even awareness stops: New meditation research

Seeing | Neuroscience | 2024-10-27

Natalia Vorontsova, MA

Ruben Laukkonen, PhD

Can we turn off our awareness (i.e., conscious metacognition) in meditation and then stay in that state for days without water, food, or going to the bathroom? A recent study by Dr. Ruben Laukkonen on the cessation of awareness in advanced meditation practitioners confirms this. In this interview, Natalia Vorontsova talks with Ruben about his research and its implications for our understanding of the nature of reality. This is a deep, yet light-hearted, conversation about mind, consciousness, time, AI, and the future of science, especially since Ruben is also an experienced meditation practitioner.

Editorial clarification: in our interpretation, this study shows only a cessation of meta-consciousness (the explicit, metacognitive awareness of what is experienced), not of phenomenal consciousness (the raw experience itself). The two are distinct, as empirical research has shown (see, e.g., this). Often, the lack of meta-consciousness leads the subject to concluding they had no experience, while in fact phenomenal consciousness was present, even during dreamless sleep (see, e.g., this). It is impossible to reliably infer the absence of phenomenal consciousness based on subjective reports. This is the case even for general anaesthesia, (see, e.g., “Anesthesia and Consciousness,” by John Kihlstrom and Randall Cork, published in The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, 2007), this being the reason why one of the drugs in the anaesthesia cocktail is meant to prevent the subject from forming memories. All that can be ascertained with confidence is that a subject doesn’t remember having been conscious. Ascertaining that one was phenomenally unconscious is equivalent to stating, paradoxically, that one consciously remembers being unconscious. This fundamental ambiguity in subjective reporting is the reason why neuroscientist Nao Tsuchiya has proposed a no-report paradigm for consciousness research (see, e.g., this). Clinical psychologists and many neuroscientists use the word ‘consciousness’ in the sense of meta-consciousness. The cessation of meta-consciousness and/or the absence of memories of consciousness don’t contradict idealism at all. If phenomenal consciousness had ceased during meditation, meditators presumably wouldn’t know how/when to come back, for, unlike the wearing off of drugs in anaesthesia, here the state is induced by the meditator themselves.

Intelligence witnessed the Big Bang

Posted on 2024-10-13 by Hans Busstra, MA

Intelligence witnessed the Big Bang

Seeing | Philosophy | 2024-10-13

Hans Busstra, MA

Bill Mensch

Could it be a coincidence that two founding fathers of modern day computing, independently from each other, are both coming with theories of consciousness that are idealist in nature? Or does a deep understanding of what computation is—and what it is not—inevitably lead away from physicalist ideas on consciousness?

Previously Essentia Foundation presented the work of Federico Faggin, and now a legendary contemporary of his, computer engineer Bill Mensch, presents his Theory of Embedded Intelligence (TEI) to us. Mensch was a major contributor to the Motorola 6800 and became famous for his work on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU, a chip that, because of it’s efficiency, completely revolutionized computing in the 80’s. From Arcade halls to the Apple II and Nintendo 8 bit consoles, 6502s could be found everywhere. Even to this day the chip is still used in children’s toys and even in pacemakers and satellites.

Looking back at his career, Mensch realizes that building computer chips is in essence a form of ‘embedding’ intelligence in technology, just as nature has embedded intelligence in biological systems, like humans. In his TEI model intelligence is fundamental. This raises the philosophical question of how consciousness relates to intelligence, and for this reason Bernardo Kastrup joined in on the conversation Mensch and Hans Busstra had.

The value of a theory like Mensch’s is perhaps exactly that it is not philosophically fine-tuned to the terminology commonly used in philosophy of mind. By not taking the human mind and phenomenal consciousness as its departure point, but intelligence instead, Mensch arrives at a position in which the distinction between living beings and abiotic systems is less distinct.

Mensch’s slides can be downloaded here.

Can we know the future? The science of precognition

Posted on 2024-09-22 by Natalia Vorontsova, MA

Can we know the future? The science of precognition

Seeing | Parapsychology | 2024-09-22

Natalia Vorontsova, MA

Julia Mossbridge, PhD

Mainstream science still tends to dismiss extrasensory phenomena (ESP). However, these so-called ‘anomalous phenomena’ are key to understanding the nature of reality, claims Dr. Julia Mossbridge: “We are beginning to change the way we think as science enters the ‘maybe we got it all wrong’ phase.” In this interview, Natalia Vorontsova talks to Julia about her research in fields ranging from neuroscience and psychology to physiology and physics, tackling questions of free will, the nature of time, the mind-body problem, and key metaphysical implications.

Can we be both rational and spiritual? Prof. John Vervaeke on solutions to the meaning crisis

Posted on 2024-09-082024-09-08 by Hans Busstra, MA

Can we be both rational and spiritual? Prof. John Vervaeke on solutions to the meaning crisis

Seeing | Psychology | 2024-09-08

Hans Busstra, MA

John Vervaeke, PhD

Hans Busstra sat down with John Vervaeke to discuss the meaning crisis, the Zombie myth we’re in, and how it all relates to what Vervaeke calls “rabbit hole metaphysics”: the conspiratorial, outlandish and often absurd ideas people start believing in, in search of meaning. A characteristic of rabbit hole types of metaphysics is that they have a ‘thick’ description of reality: a constellation of ungrounded assumptions build up to a ‘once you get this, there’s no way back’ narrative, which repeats itself in online echo-chambers.

Children’s unexplained experiences: From stories to science

Posted on 2024-08-102024-08-10 by Natalia Vorontsova, MA

Children’s unexplained experiences: From stories to science

Seeing | Psychology | 2024-08-10

Natalia Vorontsova, MA

Donna Thomas, PhD

What if your child could feel their friend’s headache in their own head? Would you be able to explain where the boundaries of self begin and end? Or how would you react if your child experienced ‘loving darkness’ during an NDE? Natalia Vorontsova explored these and other fundamental questions about the nature of reality, consciousness, and science with a researcher of children’s transpersonal and extrasensory experiences, Dr. Donna Thomas. Check out Dr. Thomas’s new book, Children’s Unexplained Experiences in a Post Materialist World, published by our own Essentia Books.