Up to quite recently science was silent about how you and I fit into the entire scheme of things. Yes, some things like the elements that make us up were nicely explained, but the you of you, the me of me, the aspects of our conscious selves were lost in translation. For science there did not appear to be a philosophical basis or structure that could even begin to address the topic. Within the last 15 to 20 years that may have begun to change with some extra-ordinary scientific findings.
In my opinion the three most dazzling, still hotly debated and important scientific findings of recent times in this area belong to those investigating Quantum Theory. All of the tests involved measuring the behavior and properties of light photons. The still contested findings are:
* The act of observing influences the outcome of the quantum state and the experiment. By observing you change the outcome. The observer is part of the process. The observer may just be a measurement device and not a person.
* At the quantum level things have an entanglement, an unseen unity such that even if separated across the galaxy what happens to the first part instantly happens to the second. This phenomenon called 'non-locality of space' implies a number of things. First, the entire universe which is made up of these quanta of energy is unified in ways we still do not understand. Second, actions taking place in one place can and most likely do have corresponding actions taking place in other locations without regard to time.
* At the quantum level decisions made after a measurement is taken at one point in time can be shown to affect the results. This truly remarkable test called the delayed choice experiment demonstrates that a decision made by the observer after the quanta have passed a tracking gate apparently goes back in time and changes the result. This phenomena is called 'non-locality of time' calls into question our basic assumptions about the single direction of time (past to the future).
That these properties exist at the most basic level of what we know about ‘stuff’. To me that means we should re-think many of our philosophical assumptions because our day to day experiences do not agree with these findings. The findings themselves don't necessarily explain how these things happen. But what they do imply is that there is something else we cannot see or measure that is at the very basis of what we are. And because quanta operate at the very basic level of everything, and have existed from the very beginnings of our universe, their behavior and structure have much to teach us. We have just stepped into some of the most hotly debated threshold territory between science and philosophy.
One could surmise there is something outside of the currently known physical universe that ties all of this together. Quantum theorists don’t know if that something may be subject to being physically tested. This puts us and science squarely on the threshold of philosophy. Effort is being put forth every day by both scientists, cosmologists, and philosophers...some being hybrids of all of the disciplines.
Some of the key philosophical implications being drawn from these findings are:
* That elements/parts of the whole display properties of the whole. And that properties of the whole are contained within the elements/parts. There is a wholeness to the universe.
* That cooperating, and intertwining complexities of the elements/parts of the whole result in ever increasing complexities of those properties in the whole.
* Analyzing things in the traditional ‘reductionism’ mode of analyzing things, i.e., taking things apart without necessarily taking into consideration of the entire structure (the wholeness) might miss the big picture. Examining processes from a holistic point of view may be a newer approach suited to establishing theories of how things really are.
While none of these findings necessarily identify consciousness, they do imply several key things that might structurally change how we go about finding out about the way things work by the very fact that we are starting from the point of view of something being whole. As such, that I am conscious, I am part of the whole. We are conscious, even as a gestalt of our body's cells and atoms, and other unseen quantum related processes: all of that might be conscious as they are all part of the wholeness . Might we structure further investigations along the line of assumptions of the wholeness of the universe? The train of though is: If you and I are conscious, if the cells, and molecules and atoms that make us up are conscious, that might extend to proposing the universe may be conscious. Energy itself may be conscious.
For me that is a beginning to further confirm my own feelings that some how we truly are connected to the universe. How about that for a new batch of philosophical cookies?!! (Half-baked or not!)