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Consciousness is inseparable from human notions of reality.
Creating common realities feels like knowing the universe.
In Roman mythology, the story of Pygmalion is telling. He created a statue of a woman
and then, because its image was so lovely and realistic, he fell in love with it.
Our desire for a coherent reality has the same power.
For those whose thinking is reliable, reality is never far behind, no matter how many incoherent
events or ideas present themselves. Think of genocide survivors.
Think of those who participate in genocide. Reality – from individuals to the collective,
from consciousness to belief systems – is a concept, one that is itself incoherent when
taken collectively. Why else would we require senses of humor?
We are indebted to our consciousness for allowing us to develop a worldview that is integrated
with our direct experience of it: reality as we know it.
Unfortunately, what we experience as coherence is just as likely the result of our consciousness
doing its job – creating coherence out of incoherence – as it is a reflection of any
truly fundamental coherence in the universe. Human thoughts, opinions, and ideas that contradict
more fundamental coherences are inevitable. The contradiction itself is an incoherence.
A cycle of separation between conscious understanding and fundamental coherence persists, us unwitting.
The universe must have a kind of coherence that is more fundamental than the contextual
coherence human language provides. The universe need not be unwitting, as we
must. What is it that makes possible the emergence
of coherence in the universe in the first place?
What limits does it have? What Language does the universe speak?
We already know of one coherent language that is more fundamental than human language: DNA.
Consider the states of matter and energy. Though dynamic they can be highly stable and
predictable. Consider the states of dark energy and dark
matter. Experts estimate that something like 95% of
the universe is comprised of them, and yet they are complete mysteries.
The universe speaks a language of physical coherence.
Everything depends on it.
In part three, I describe other hurdles to finding such a coherence.