In physics, matter and information are primary and there is nothing else.
So, we have to review all of that in light of a new paradigm where you start with consciousness and free will. Otherwise, you know, if everything stays the same, there is no need for consciousness and free will. But then you cannot explain why we're here.
Yeah, right, right. Look, you're explaining some very critical things. I really don't expect you to have all the answers. I just want to explore what the nature of the issues are.
Federico, in formulating your theory of quantum information-based panpsychism, a remarkably creative way to see reality, you coined a term, sayeties, in terms of what you see as fundamental consciousness units. So, I really want to understand how those work, what they are, how they articulate together, is it one different parts, and then how they work with quantum fields.
The idea that instead of atoms and molecules the basic units of which reality is built could be conscious units actually goes back to Leibniz. Like the monads of Leibniz are the idea that we shouldn't start with matter, but we should start with something that is conscious. And they are created by one.
Now, I didn't come to this idea by having read Leibniz. I found out later that Leibniz... I didn't study philosophy even though my father wrote the history of philosophy for the... in three volumes. But you know, but basically because my interest was obviously, you know, in science and technology and all those things. So, but basically a field that is conscious and has free will was evident to me as it had to be the way to start, you know, after these 20 years of work that I did after having had the illumination, an experience that illuminated me.
So, how do they relate to quantum fields?
You know, basically they are quantum fields created by a unified field which is one. So, one creates fields out of itself. And by the way, the fact that one creates fields out of itself is the birth of life. You know, one is in fact generating copies, or not copies but something like it, you know, I call them parts-whole of itself. As it knows itself in an act of knowing, one means a creation of a field, something like itself that has the identity is the way in which the perspective in which it knew itself when it created this entity. So, knowing and creation, knowing and existing are two aspects of the same thing. So, when the whole which is consciousness and has will in this case...
And has will. Yeah. Creates a conscious unit or a consciousness field, is that new field part of itself? Yes, it is inseparable from itself. And so, when it creates the field, it's not diminished in any way. It's not any less, is it?
No, of course. In fact, it is more because it has known itself in that way.
Because one wants to know itself. You know, you have to start with the idea that one is holistic, dynamic, and wants to know itself. So, every time it knows itself, it brings into existence, it creates something new, which is... knowing is a property, is, you know, is something, you know, is a new, is like a substance. Where does this new substance come from? From the quantum vacuum, which is potentiality. One is a potentiality that in physics would be the quantum vacuum. And that potentiality, from that potentiality emerges any new knowing of self. But that new knowing, you know, is ontological. It's not just... it is a knowing that can know itself.
So each time this is done, I mean, is there a number that you can say? Is it a finite, infinite number that...
It is a continuing process and, you know, it will continue. One will continue. The more it knows itself, the more it brings into existence, you know...
So, do we have an order of magnitude of how many there are? You know, how many...
Just think about human beings, right? But of course, you know, human beings are not, you know, the way the fields then interacting, they create new entities which are fields with the common properties that they have known by interacting. That is, you know, that is the next level, right? So, in other words, you know, fields then can combine and create fields of higher order, you know, a hierarchy of fields.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. So, so in fields filiate also.
A field filiates because, you know, it must have the same properties of one, just like cells. You know, the cells of our body, right? The cells of our body, each cell of our body has the genome of the egg of the single cell that created the entire body.
Look at that. Same process. The same process. So, there we have an order of magnitude because you have one cell and what do we have? 40 trillion cells in our body.
Yeah, about, yeah, about 40. Whatever the number is.
So, I mean, can you make the same estimate for these consciousness units? Is it 10 to the 40th? Is it 10 to... because we estimate that like there are in the observable universe 10 to the 90th photons or something like that. So, is the number of consciousness units comparable?
Well, the photons, you know, are more like symbols that are used to communicate. So, but I would say that, you know, my sense would be as a minimum it would be how many different molecules there are, for example, you know, different types of molecules and so on. So, but if I had to guess, it would be probably 10 to the 40, 10 to the 50s, you know, something like that. You know, huge numbers, you know, it's a huge number.
