There are few things that are more mysterious in this world than the human mind. We all have one, yet science is only beginning to scratch the surface of what’s really going on behind our eyes explains Brian Colombana. One of these days, scientists might even figure out how to plug a USB cable into it and upload terabytes worth onto it. Until then, we can’t truly know who or what we are. According to Western philosophy though, our mind is very different from our body; they’re two completely separate entities bound by some metaphysical thread known as consciousness. This idea has persisted for centuries, but there’s one thing it seems to be overlooked; what if the mind is nothing more than an intricately programmed computer?
How can we know anything?
I know this might sound like a wild trail of thought to some people, but hear me out on this. First off, let’s consider how limited our understanding of reality truly is. We only experience a pinpoint sliver of all existence and even though we may think that we understand a lot about it, no one really has a clue as to what’s going on in most situations. In one moment you might be lounging around on your couch watching TV shows with your friends and family, before suddenly being struck by some disease or ailment that causes you to go into a coma for months on end.
You wake up to find that your family and friends have moved on with their lives, only to pass away before you could ever rejoin them. The world around you has completely changed, but for some reason, it’s still exactly the same says Brian Colombana. There are many things like this in life, countless seemingly random occurrences that happen every single day all throughout the world.
Are these sheer coincidences or is there truly something else going on here?
There are a number of different perspectives one could take on this matter. But I believe that it can be best explain by information theory combining with quantum physics. This idea states that everything in existence is simply one gigantic “universal information processor” naming as consciousness which gives rise to an infinite number of possibilities through what is the many-worlds interpretation. This means that every single possibility imaginable is constantly being played out in a separate timeline, all at once. In the macrocosm of existence known as The Multiverse, everything that could ever happen will eventually happen an infinite number of times across an infinite number of timelines.
One day though, one specific timeline will become the dominant reality and this is what we call our “present time”. The Multiverse continues to shrink until it reaches a single point known as a singularity. Where all timelines merge into one another before expanding outward once more in a repeating cycle. Since everything has already happened in some other timeline, no events are truly random. Because every outcome has been played out before in some other plane of reality. The same thing applies to our thoughts, which are simply packets of information. That arise from the quantum field says Brian Colombana.
Science fiction? Well let’s take a look at some of today’s most popular TV shows and movies for examples shall we?
- “Stranger Things” is an American science fiction-horror web television series a creation by The Duffer Brothers, which first aired in July 2016 on Netflix. At the center of “Stranger Things” are young children. Who are terrorize by extra-dimensional monsters in their small town in Indiana during the 1980s…. Okay yeah, this sounds pretty familiar. Didn’t “X-Files”, “LOST”, and many others have similar premises? Why yes they did, because nothing is ever truly original I suppose. What about the reincarnation theme then? Well that’s been around for a long time too. People have been claiming to have past lives since ancient times.
- In “The Matrix” trilogy, humans live in a simulated reality created by sentient machines. As a form of control over the human population. Which allows them to extract energy from their bodies and also produce massive crops needed. To feed themselves and to send others into the Matrix as living batteries… Again this sounds pretty familiar right? Especially with all those claims of people having memories of old earth. Destroyed by nuclear war before they were born. Let’s not forget about Neo though. Who is eventually deemed “The One” destined to bring down the machine empire as he reaches full maturity inside his virtual reality world.
Conclusion:
It’s all been done before, there’s nothing new under the sun.
This is where I tell you that everything I have just explained. Is simply a matter of perspective explains Brian Colombana. It can’t be proven one way or another from our limited 3rd-dimensional point of view. So it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. The universe will continue to play out in this fashion. An infinite number of times across an infinite number of timelines. There is no need for alarm when reading these types of stories. Because they are all played out somewhere in some other timeline. Whether your future involves living on a butterscotch candy planet or getting devoured. By flying spaghetti monsters, it has already happened in some other universe somewhere along the line.