Ultimately, we're not made of things but of processes; we're not objects or subjects, we are happenings.

Both subject and object are complementary aspects of an experiential process. The process is fundamental whilst the subject and object are virtual appearances.

The unified cosmic process (Brahman) has subject=God (Supreme Self) and object=quantum field (spirit world).

This unified cosmic process operates 'between' moments of existence; changing the state of NOW so that it seems that there are many successive moments.

As these moments blur together there seems to exist myriad individual experiential processes (Atman), which operate 'across' moments of existence.

This is how Atman is Brahman, depending on whether we contemplate the process as operating 'between' or 'across' moments. When 'between' it is One, whilst when operating 'across' it is many.

The individual experiential processes (Atman) have subject=Jiva (personal self) and object=Maya (phenomenal world).

In this way the unified cosmic process seemingly animates myriads of virtual processes, hence the One manifests as many. Many subjects (embodied beings) and many objects (physical universe).

But ultimately there is just one unified cosmic process, which can be known as either one subject (God / Supreme Self) or one object (quantum field / spirit world).

Anyway, that is one possible English interpretation of the mathematics that I intuitively received and have been contemplating since 2000. The maths is crystal clear and very succinct but it is hard to find words to describe it because words have so much egoic / materialist baggage attached.

Hope it makes sense to you...

BTW for much more detail see System Science of Virtual Reality.

Worldly concepts, words and thought processes cannot give the mind enough traction to grasp reality. However the mind itself CAN grasp these things and the intellect can understand. Although the word 'mind' means different things to different people... Hence I'll explain a little of where I'm "coming from" in regards to 'mind'...  More >

The following is a brief overview of an information system ontology and metaphysics, i.e. those concepts, entities and processes that provide a foundation for a non-materialist, consciousness based world-view. The explanation is kind of technical because it is difficult to explain non-materialist issues in a mostly materialist language, however the understanding itself is very simple and intuitive once one shifts to a non-materialist paradigm. This explanation starts from general principles and works towards particulars.  More >

There are some who believe that only sentient beings such as humans can collapse quantum wavefunctions. IMHO this is a fallacy and it leads to a paradox, which can be resolved by developing a deeper understanding of consciousness.

The paradox is, if sentient being are required to collapse a wavefunction, then how could the classical universe exist before sentient beings evolved, and how could sentient beings evolve if the classical universe didn't yet exist? At what stage did the pure quantum potential suddenly start collapsing into particular classical actualities? How did this new ingredient "wavefunction-collapsing-sentience" arise from the pure quantum potential? There is a maze of paradoxes here...

In fact any interaction with another system will collapse the wavefunction. Any observation will do it, because whenever an observable is required by another system as part of an interaction the wavefunction must collapse to provide an observable. This approach is a natural part of an efficient simulation algorithm, which only computes the state of a virtual system when another virtual system requires an observable in order to experience and interact with it.

The sensitivity to collapse is why researchers are having so much trouble building quantum computers, they call it the "decoherence problem". In order to perform computations with wavefunctions we can't have them collapsing willy-nilly, but the slightest interaction with any aspect of the surrounding universe will collapse the wavefunction. So how can one develop a framework within which to compute with wavefunctions?

If it was only sentient beings who collapse wavefunctions then the decoherence problem would be easy to solve, just put the quantum computer in an opaque box and don't let anyone open the box until the computation has had plenty of time to complete. Then a sentient being can open the box to collapse the wavefunction and observe the final result of the computation. This is not what happens in reality.

The only way out of the quantum-sentience-paradox is to accept that not only complex systems with complex forms of awareness (such as ourselves) are involved in the collapse of the wavefunction, but even simple systems with simple forms of awareness. Hence the way out of paradox is to overcome anthropocentric concepts of consciousness and accept some form of panpsychism, such as pan-proto-experientialism.

Even a fundamental particle has its own primitive form of consciousness - nowhere near as complex and rich as ours, but it is aware nevertheless. A particle couldn't interact with other particles if it wasn't aware of their existence and their state of being. It needs to observe their state of being in order to react to them, and this observation collapses the wavefunction of the other particles.

Thanks to Tim Cumper for raising this issue and inspiring me to write this article...

Taking numbers consisting of 1's and squaring them reveals an interesting countup-countdown pattern in the resulting product.

1^2= 1

11^2= 121

111^2= 12321

1111^2= 1234321

11111^2= 123454321  More >

• What questions can science not answer? http://qr.ae/7Xh2

• What are some taboos in science? http://qr.ae/Jzq

• What is consciousness? http://qr.ae/7FD

• What is sentience? http://qr.ae/TRw

• Hard Problem of Consciousness http://qr.ae/7nhU

• What is naive realism? http://qr.ae/0cq

• What exactly are qualia? http://qr.ae/7NA4

• What is matter? http://qr.ae/7nnn

• Does matter exist? http://qr.ae/7nta

• What is it like to be a quantum computational process? http://qr.ae/7nht

• Is the universe a simulation? http://qr.ae/TlI

• Is it possible to create a general system simulator? http://qr.ae/jab

• In simple terms, what does the Stern-Gerlach experiment imply about the nature of quantum systems and observable phenomena? http://qr.ae/7vvJ

• Now that naive realism has been disproved by quantum mechanics, how will this impact our collective paradigm? http://qr.ae/0Sr

• If society undergoes a paradigm shift to a non-naive realist paradigm, which words will retain their meaning and which will change? http://qr.ae/7nCC

• Is a photon a particle or a wave? http://qr.ae/7KBb

• What basic principles would need to be covered by a “virtuality tutorial”? http://qr.ae/72X9

• What are memes and memeplexes? http://qr.ae/7ndi

• Is the concept of a ‘person’ a social construct? http://qr.ae/7nUN

• How do you know if you are self-aware? http://qr.ae/7Ryr

• Can we have an agreed-upon definition of ‘reality’? http://qr.ae/KSb

• What is the “problem of the external world”? http://qr.ae/7vyG

• Do spirits exist in Reality? http://qr.ae/7G76

• How can you learn faster? http://qr.ae/7tA7

• What is evil? http://qr.ae/7tmW

• How have Enlightened beings lived in human society? http://qr.ae/7nyv

• What is a memetic disease and how do they operate throughout our minds and cultures? http://qr.ae/7nMq

• How is the concept of a memetic disease related to the concepts of physical, psychological and social diseases? http://qr.ae/7nEi

• What is the most endemic and destructive cultural phenomenon of all time? http://qr.ae/7tBw

• Is the phenomenon of ethnogenesis an example of memetic autopoiesis of a collective intelligence? http://qr.ae/7Ih0

• What use is the I Ching? http://qr.ae/1N8

• What does it mean to be a person with big karma? http://qr.ae/cmc What is karma?

• What does it mean that everything in the world is a teacher? http://qr.ae/0yV Sadguru - teacher within.

• What is one thing you have to believe before you can experience it? http://qr.ae/030 Experiencing oneself as a “person in a world”…

• What is the unique quality that is in the consciousness of the human beings who have attained the Supreme Enlightenment? http://qr.ae/dIU Complete absence of delusion

• What is the likelihood humans don’t have the brain power to fully comprehend the answer to why we exist? http://qr.ae/7p14

• What are system leverage points and why is it useful to know? http://qr.ae/7IF3

• Is nature self-similar across scales? If so, what is the principle in which it is self-similar? What are some examples of self-similarity? http://qr.ae/a3a

• What is one important thing that no one told you about? http://qr.ae/7RGl The universe isn’t a mechanism that one must ‘manipulate’ and that events are not just ‘accidental’ happenings - instead the universe is alive and responsive…

• What is a narrative? http://qr.ae/0OG

• What is a fractal? http://qr.ae/0gU

• Is there a meaningful relation between fractals and cellular automata? http://qr.ae/0bu

• What do the results of the PEAR GCP ICRL experiments say about consciousness and how can we scientifically explain them? http://qr.ae/v0h Consciousness itself, unaided by known physical mechanisms, can influence physical reality.” The likelihood that this is due to chance is one in a trillion (10^-12)…

• What major social problems have been solved by philanthropy in the last 50 years? http://qr.ae/7r9u

• What do you think of the many-worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? http://qr.ae/7yfA

• Also “System Science of Virtual Reality” is a relevant ebook http://bit.ly/9XhElB for those who wish to explore deeper.

• Signs of an emerging Paradigm http://bit.ly/dfxL4R

• Shape of the Emerging Memeplex and How to Nurture It http://bit.ly/bWtL1e

• I Ching’s Advice on Nurturing the Emerging Memeplex http://bit.ly/cjRgrC

• The I Ching’s “Wisdom for this Phase of the Journey” http://bit.ly/cFxqD5

See the original and other answers at http://www.quora.com/Is-the-universe-a-simulation

At the bottom of this page there are also some other answers and my comments on them.

I will not attempt to answer this question here, but merely provide some links to instances where the idea has been discussed. This idea is becoming increasingly popular within the scientific debate because it provides an explanatory framework that allows us to comprehend quantum phenomena that were previously incomprehensible...

Whilst it is impossible to comprehend the quantum mechanical description of the universe in terms of 'physical' phenomena, at the same time we are finding that thinking in terms of information processes allows us to understand quantum phenomena, not as something bizarre and paradoxical, but as the natural & necessary properties of a simulated virtual reality.  More >

@markjbradford quoted @GrahamHill, which was retweeted by @Technoshaman

• "The key is that effective co-creation needs to be organised. It doesn't self-organise..."

I totally disagree with this, thus I responded to them saying:  More >

Quoted from my comments to a facebook conversation...

Some Information Theoretic Background

In terms of communication, the issue of coherence is related to the transference of pattern/structure between information spaces. E.g. the transference of an idea between minds or an email between computers.  More >

“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” (Alexander Pope)

Quotes from Chapter 13 “The Yoga of the Division of the Cosmos into Body and Soul” from the Bhagavad Gita.  More >

“Liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective, conscious state of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes” (Wikipedia)

A 'liminal' state is when structures dissolve and the stream of events undergoes a creative process of change, resulting in the spontaneous emergence of fundamentally new forms and modes of being.

Thus a 'liminal' state is the state of being in the midst of a radical, whole system, evolutionary, quantum leap.

It is not a smooth transition but a radical discontinuity. For example, if one cuts open a caterpillar's cocoon one doesn't find a half-caterpillar-half butterfly, what one finds is a complex biological soup that is in a liminal state.

Paradigm shifts also require such transformative leaps, where the old ways of thinking and being are deconstructed all the way down to the the fundamental assumptions from which they have grown. When these are dissolved by the clear light of awareness the new paradigm will emerge and flourish.

This process is known to alchemists as VITRIOL, the “Universal Solvent”. It is from this acronym that the word vitriolic arose, to describe the action of sulphuric acid and its capacity to dissolve things into their basic constituents.

VITRIOL stands for “Visitas interiora terrae rectificando invenese Occultum Lapidum.”

Literally it translates as “Visit the interior of earth and by rectification you will discover the Hidden Stone (the Philosopher's Stone).”

What it means is that in any context, delve into the foundations of it, dissolve it into its fundamental constituents and underlying causes then seek to correct the situation at that deep level, then you will gain profound insight and mastery of that context. This is particularly applied in the alchemical context of self-awareness, self-knowledge, self-transformation and self-mastery.

Self-Realisation, profound insight and effortless mastery are easily attainable, but only on the “other side” of a liminal state. If one simply builds upon the old foundation in new ways one only creates variations of the same old theme. To discover that which is truly new one must dissolve the old and let things go into a liminal state.

I see two approaches to this issue and will introduce them by briefly describing the context and development of each, showing how one leads into the other. I have endeavoured to keep this as simple and concise as possible for a subject of this depth.  More >

From a response to a Facebook conversation about the issue of action, inaction, non-action, ego, doer, doership, etc.

I just opened the Bhagavad Gita at random and it opened at chapter 3, "Karma Yoga: The Way of Action". The entire book is relevant to this issue however I will quote extensively from just this chapter because synchronicity is suggesting that it may be particularly relevant.

First some background. Arjuna is a prince of a great kingdom that has disintegrated into two warring factions. Krishna, the avatar of the Supreme Godhead is serving as Arjuna's charioteer. A great war has arisen and Arjuna is called upon to lead an army to fight his kinsmen, his brothers, his teachers and those who he loves and respects.

On the eve of the battle, in the midst of the two armies, Arjuna breaks down. "O Krishna, when I see these people, my kinsmen assembled here, eager for battle, my limbs sag, my mouth feels parched, my body quakes, and my hairs stand on end... I am unable to stand still and my mind is in a whirl. I see adverse omens, and do not forsee any good from killing my own kinsmen in battle... These I would not wish to kill though they may have risen to kill us. Even to obtain the kingdom of the three worlds (outer, inner & inner most); far less for the sake of the earth...."

Krishna's first reply is "O Arjuna, from where does this disgraceful conduct come into your mind in this hour of peril? It is unknown to the Aryas (awakened ones), does not lead to heaven, and brings one disrepute."

Krishna goes on to explain the entire nature of reality, the cosmic process and its projection upon the earthly plane, the fact that none there on the battle field are actually alive to begin with so they cannot be killed, that one must fulfil one's dharma and enact one's innermost law, which is the law of the cosmos. Anything else is futile and ruinous.  More >