Amerika

Human life builds itself around the certainty of knowing in the midst of having no idea what is going on. We do not know how we got here, what consciousness is, or how much actual choice we have in what we do.

Potentially we are simply brains which rationalize impulses that seem necessary for survival and reproduction. Certainly the rise of LLMs/AIs has shown us that much of what we thought was “human” thinking is in fact statistical approximation of what an answer should look like.

It could possibly have levels. That is, most people may operate in desire-fulfillment-and-rationalization mode, and others could have other functions, including concern for the transcendent, or that mode of thought that unites us with the world on its terms.

Transcendent thinking is an opposite to moral thinking; instead of passing judgment on the world, it accepts it as it is, and in a state of reverence, seeks to understand why it is as it is, recognizing that this ancient thing has finely-calculated reasons for all that it does.

In the religious judgment, for example, death and entropy are sad and horrible things; in the transcendent view, they are necessary because they are better than the other options. That is, if we are faced with a choice between a static energyless existence or eventual death, which do we choose?

The transcendent is not fatalism. That is to say, we do not look at the universe and figure that since death is part of it, we should just embrace dying. Many things exist for us to struggle against because it is natural for us to do so, like decay and disease.

The bigger point however is that we cannot cherry-pick our data, equalize our inputs, or narrow our focus to only the parts of reality we like. We have to accept the whole, warts and all, and recognize that its greatness requires the parts of it that we find threatening.

Through that process, we gain the ability to appreciate our world again and to see its benevolence, therefore to move past our fears and to embrace its infinite qualities. A good description of transcendent thinking reflects this view:

Non-ordinary states of consciousness refer to mental states that differ significantly from normal waking awareness in terms of perception, cognition, emotion, and sense of self. These states can arise through various means, including meditation, sensory deprivation, extreme stress, sleep, or the use of psychoactive substances (like psychedelics). They typically involve alterations in time perception, intensified imagery, and a reduced sense of the boundaries between the self and the environment. Some non-ordinary states are considered pathological, while others are culturally valued or deliberately cultivated for spiritual purposes.

One specific type of non-ordinary state of consciousness is the transcendental visionary state. This state is characterized by vivid, often symbolic or archetypal imagery and a strong sense of insight or revelation. Individuals in such states frequently report experiencing a reality that feels more meaningful or “truer” than ordinary perception. These experiences may include visions of entities, landscapes, or abstract patterns, often accompanied by intense emotions such as awe or unity. In many religious and mystical traditions, transcendental visionary states are interpreted as encounters with a higher reality or divine presence.

The “truer” reality is one where everything makes sense, even the parts we fear, and so we can see the architectonic whole where each part supports all the others in the creation of an overall structure that unites scary and safe into production of the experience.

This “meta-good” values existence over our fears; instead of focusing on what we dislike, it sees the wisdom of a system that can despite limitations create the experience of life, even if it will have its dark sides in balance to the light.

From this rises a question of consciousness: are we even alive until we have this type of transcendent experience?

More likely, it seems like consciousness is both a spectrum and something that arises naturally from the complexity of the universe itself:

Koch suggests it may be necessary to revisit older philosophical ideas like idealism or panpsychism. These perspectives treat consciousness as a basic component of reality rather than something produced solely by the brain. He supports Integrated Information Theory, which proposes that any system with a sufficiently high level of integrated information has some form of subjective experience, offering a scientific interpretation of panpsychism.

That is, consciousness is not the product of a “consciousness engine” in our brain, but a natural response to enough complexity that we model the world in perception and, in doing so, are eventually able to model ourselves as well.

If this is true, those LLMs and AIs will become closer to conscious sooner than people think.

In a broader view, this means that consciousness is a property of the universe itself. When there is enough complexity, consciousness arises, which suggests that at the start of existence, before even matter itself, there may have been thought without form.

Perhaps a working definition of “God” would that: thought without form. Thinking without a brain. A level of organization to information itself that gives rise to matter, as Plato suggested, would fit within this definition.

A feedback loop might exist where the source of thought without form creates matter so that ideas can be instantiated and tested against each other, and against the environment of all instantiated ideas, in order to further refine its own logic.

In this sense, God is both unconsious and a Romanticist who creates from a sense of beauty and benevolence, then tests his creations to make sure they are not fragile and will endure forever. What does not kill them makes them stronger.

That also gives rise to a troubling thought. Until we discipline our thinking, we are merely raw animal meat reactions. This is why people aspire to transcendence: through it, their brains synchronize with the patterns of the universe, and they gain wisdom.

Tags: awareness, consciousness, theory of mind, transcendence