The inevitability and ubiquity of potential information and primordial consciousness

 Most theoretical physicists seem to find it difficult to relate notions like information and consciousness to the physical world. I believe that part of the problem is that they are convinced that matter is the fundamental substance in nature. But what if information and consciousness were the very basic constituents of our Universe ?

By using simple logic, I will argue that information and consciousness are fundamental, inevitable and ubiquitous in the Universe and that our 3D material reality is only an emergent phenomenon.

Let’s assume that at the start of the Universe there is nothing, nothing exists, not even time. The most fundamental notion, a state of existence itself, has to be defined. But as nothing exists, how can a state of existence be defined ? One solution is simply to introduce a state of non-existence.

To define and distinguish these two states we can say that one is the opposite of the other one, or if one “is”, the other one “is not”. These two states represent a piece of potential information, like bits in a computer, either 0 or 1. The notion of existence itself is relative. Each state is existence from its own point of view and non-existence from the other’s. The two states cannot exist without one another but they nevertheless are in two opposite realities. We will call this pair of states a Bit of potential information but we could equally call it a Bit of potential existence.

The existence of a Bit of potential information is inevitable; something either does exists or does not exist. The time and place at which this existence happens cannot be defined at this stage as the notion of time or space is not yet defined. At this stage, we could say that Bits of potential information are anywhere and at any time but also everywhere and at every time. From this point of view, we could say that the Universe is infinite and has always existed.

Potential information/existence is therefore inevitable and ubiquitous in the Universe. But in order to transform this potential information/existence into a reality, something else is needed. That something is what we commonly call a state of consciousness. Without a state of consciousness, potential information would remain meaningless. Our reality, at the most fundamental level, is therefore a coherent combination of three states: existence, non-existence and consciousness.

The combination of these three states could be assimilated to what is commonly called a QuBit . A QuBit could be defined as a superposition of two states (existence/non-existence) and only when “observed” by a state of consciousness would it take a definite value. Consciousness, at the most basic level, transforms potential information into real information, concurrently creating a reality. Without consciousness our Universe would remain in a state of eternal potential information. In other words, it would not become a reality. A reality is therefore inevitably linked to a certain state of consciousness.

On first thoughts, this state of consciousness must come from a conscious entity (a certain state of developed consciousness) but one could also imagine that, at the very beginning of our Universe, only a primordial state of consciousness would be sufficient. The consciousness exhibited by a living person would simply be an evolution of that primordial state of consciousness, in the same way that the body of a living person is the evolution of a primordial cell.

But how would a primordial state of consciousness emerge in the first instance ?

We have seen previously that the existence of potential information is inevitable, but this also implies that the existence of a potential choice between a state of existence and a state of non-existence is also inevitable. A primordial state of consciousness would appear once that potential choice has been made. But what can trigger that initial choice in the first instance ?

In the same way that something either does exist or does not exist, a choice can either be made or not be made.

If a choice is made, it implies that a primordial state of consciousness exists because we have seen previously that a primordial state of consciousness would appear once a choice is made. In this case, the primordial state of consciousness has in fact made the choice to exist.

If a choice is not made, it would seem to imply that a primordial state of consciousness does not exist because no choice is made but, from a “non-existence” point of view, it could also imply that a primordial state of consciousness has made the choice not to exist and in doing so it made a choice nevertheless, therefore creating its own appearance (in the “non-existence” side of the Universe)

We now see that, in the same way that the existence of potential information is inevitable and ubiquitous in the Universe, the existence of a primordial state of consciousness is also inevitable and ubiquitous.

If the existence of potential information and the existence of a primordial state of consciousness are inevitable in the Universe, then the appearance of a “reality” is also inevitable. So we now have a possible answer to the famous Leibniz’s question: why is there something rather than nothing ? Well, in fact, there is not. As far as the whole Universe is concerned there is as much something (existence) as there is nothing (non-existence), as both are relative. If there is a reality made of “something”, there inevitably is the same opposite reality made of “nothing”. “Something” or “Nothing” are simply two opposite states and only a primordial state of consciousness will decide which is which.