God, Consciousness and Mathematics

In the 2 May 2020 issue of New Scientist there was an article about a new mathematical theory of consciousness. According to this theory "all kinds of inanimate matter could be conscious". To me this mathematical understanding of consciousness sounded very similar to the explanation of Brahman, the universal consciousness, in the Indian texts of Upanishads.

In 2018, I had written about different ways of understanding God in different religions and how the Upanishads define God in many ways, including as Brahman, the all pervading universal consciousness. This post can be seen as a continuation of that same argument and focuses on the article from New Scientist and its similarities with the ideas in Upanishads.

Here. There. Everywhere?

Michael Brooks' article is titled "Here. There. Everywhere?" He starts with the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) proposed by American neuroscientist Giulio Tononi in 2004. Then he explains the ideas of Johannes Kleiner in Munich and Sean Tull in Oxford, which start from Tononi's ideas and refine them. Tononi had proposed that consciousness was a characteristic of information-exchange and if we could measure that, then we could also measure consciousness. Kleiner and Tull have attempted "to identify the necessary mathematical ingredients of IIT, splitting them into three parts. First is the set of physical systems that encode the information. Next is the various manifestations or “spaces” of conscious experience. Finally, there are basic building blocks that relate these two: the “repertoires” of cause and effect." According to Brooks, the significance of this work is the following:

One consequence of this stimulus might be a reckoning for the notion, raised by IIT’s application to grid-shaped circuits, that inanimate matter can be conscious. Such a claim is typically dismissed out of hand, because it appears to be tantamount to “panpsychism”, a philosophical viewpoint that suggests consciousness is a fundamental property of all matter. But what if there is something in it?To be clear, no one is saying that fundamental particles have feelings. But panpsychists do argue that they may have some semblance of consciousness, however fragmentary, that could combine to generate the various levels of consciousness experienced by birds or chimpanzees or us. “Particles or other basic physical entities might have simple forms of consciousness that are fundamental, but complex human and animal consciousness would be constituted by or emergent from this" ...The idea that electrons could have some form of consciousness might be hard to swallow, but panpsychists argue that it provides the only plausible approach to solving the hard problem. They reason that, rather than trying to account for consciousness in terms of non-conscious elements, we should instead ask how rudimentary forms of consciousness might come together to give rise to the complex experiences we have.

Consciousness in Upanishads

Upanishads are ancient Hindu texts written in Sanskrit that often touch on the nature of reality. "Ishavasya" is one of the first Upanishads, dating back to different centuries before Christ. Its name - "Isha" (God) and Vasya (Lives in) - comes from its first line:

It means that God pervades everything, both animate and inanimate. It is similar to the hypothesis of the mathematical theory proposed by Kleiner and Tull, as the text equates 'God' with 'Consciousness'.

The Upanishads define different levels of consciousness including Turiya or absolute consciousness. Turiya is the state of pure being in which awareness is present but the experiences are not accompanied by any thoughts, and it can't be described in words. This philosophy of non-dualness, the unity of our personal consciousness with that of the universal consciousness is known as Advaita philosophy. To me these ideas sound remarkably similar to the considerations of Kleiner and Tull.

Some Hindu texts differentiate between Parmatma or the universal consciousness and Jeevatma, the individual consciousness, where Parmatma is the ocean while Jeevatma are the rivers. There are other explanations about different levels of individual consciousness inside animate and inanimate world, which can be seen as "rudimentary consciousness" in Brooks' article.

The concept of Brahman or the universal consciousness is deeply rooted in Hinduism. It is expressed in words like Brahmand or the universe and Brahmin, the one who has spiritual knowledge. It is also used in the Beej Mantra to be chanted or meditated upon during Yoga and meditation, such as Swam Ho (I am), Aham Brahma (I am the life force), Aham Shivam (I am the eternal truth). Thus, if Kleiner and Tull's theory is about universal consciousness, then according to the ideas of Upanishad, it is also a theory of God.

If we think of God as universal consciousness pervading every object and being of this universe, perhaps we will learn to respect the environment, the rivers and the mountains, the trees, insects, birds and animals, and all the human beings.

Conclusions

I think that with greater scientific and technological understandings of the world, the role of religions will change in our lives. Today, for many persons religion continues to have a fundamental role in differentiating and defining right and wrong, good and bad, permissible and prohibited. However, for many others, religion only has a spiritual significance because it allows us to give a deeper meaning to our lives, but it does not have a prescriptive role.

Questioning and refusing parts of our religious beliefs is essential for many of us. At the same time, our ideas about right and wrong are shaped more by concepts of human rights, equality of all human beings, and, love and respect for the nature. We can pick and choose aspects from different religions, which speak to our heart, but we are not bound by the walls separating them.

I think that this kind of questioning approach to our religions will become dominant in the coming decades and centuries. It is how I look at Hinduism. The phase of human culture dominated by prescriptive religions with rigid boundaries and commands is coming to an end. As humanity will become more self-aware and self-confident, it will focus on spiritual dimensions of religions, allowing each of us to have our own ideas of right and wrong. There may be inspirations to understand the world in our ancient texts and religious books, while there may be other parts that may not appeal to us. And, there need not be a gulf separating the ideas of God from those of mathematical theories.

Note: The images used in this post are from an exhibition of Indian artists held in Delhi in January 2020 and are by Rashmi Malhotra (a mathematician and an artist) and Prince Chand.

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A Creativity Megahub in Schio

Can 3D Printing provide good quality and better fitting prosthesis to persons with disabilities? I was looking for the answers to this question. The problem was that my knowledge about 3D printing was extremely limited and so I had to first understand about 3D printing.

A chance live-telecast on Facebook introduced to me to Megahub, an initiative promoting creativity and technological innovation, which helped me to learn the basics about 3D printing. I will write a separate post on the possible role of 3D printing in making of prosthesis. This post is an introduction to the Megahub initiative.

The Question About 3D Printing

3D printing was supposed to completely transform the world economy and our daily lives. All we needed was a 3D printer and we could have printed in our village everything that we needed, from medicine pills to shoes and clothes, in the designs and colours that we wanted, at almost no or very low cost.

However, after the initial hyperbolic predictions and enthusiasm for a few years, today we do not hear so much about it.

It was in this background that I was asked the question about the role of 3D printing for the production of prosthesis. A prosthesis serves to substitute a missing body-part - for example, an artificial arm for a person with arm-amputation.

My Chance Encounter with Megahub

I live in Schio, a little town in Italy, about 80 km north-west of Venice. About a year ago, I wanted to learn about post-processing of digital photographs. Searching on internet, I had found that Megahub organised such courses, so I had written to them and asked to inform me whenever they had such a course. After that email, nothing had happened and I had forgotten all about it.

Then, a few days ago, while I was trying to learn about 3D printing, I saw an email from Megahub, saying that they were going to do a live telecast about 3D printing on their Facebook page. When I read that email, it was almost the time for that telecast, so I immediately clicked the link. The telecast was an introduction about the technology. After the telecast, I checked the Megahub website and found that they had 3D printers and provided basic training about how to use them. I immediately signed up for an introductory session.

Learning About 3D Printers

Silvano, my teacher for 3D printers, is a great person - simple, unassuming and passionate about the 3D printing technology. I had a half-hour appointment with him, instead we talked for 2 hours and he patiently answered all my questions, explained everything with examples and showed me stuff about different kinds of 3D printers.

At the end of this session, now I have a much better overview and understanding about 3D printing and its possible role in making prosthesis. I will write a separate post about it.

Megahub Services

Megahub is one of the activities of a social cooperative of Schio called Samarcanda, which is active in different areas such as support for refugees, homeless persons and women in difficult situations. Their main office is on Via Paraiso, a few kilometres from the city centre. Part of their building is dedicated to Co-Working, where you can rent a working space and have an office with access to a meeting room, internet, printer and a kitchen.

Megahub is one of the activities in that building, and it has a separate space with an open-space layout which is subdivided into two kinds of areas - an area with machines for rent and learning; and, spaces which can be rented by start-ups and artisans.

The Learning & Machine Area of the Megahub includes labs for 3D printing, photography studio, electronic lab, laser cutting, CNC milling machine, welding, woodwork and carpentry. For each of these areas, you can join their training courses as well as, fix individual appointments for learning about the use of a specific machine. You can also book a machine and make things for your personal projects. For all of these, the costs are very reasonable since it is run by a social cooperative. The teachers are all young and passionate persons, who often go beyond their professional roles to try to help you.

The Start-Ups and Artisan spaces can be rented for a small amount by persons who are starting their professional careers. For example, presently one of the spaces is rented by a young ceramic designer while another has a couple making artistic mirrors. In one space, a guy has a green-house setup inside an old cold-drinks' box where he grows orchids - it is completely automated, so he can control it from his mobile phone.

I think that Megahub is a wonderful opportunity for young entrepreneurs to get a supporting environment, where they can work by themselves and yet be surrounded by others, who can become friends and supporters. They can try their ideas without risking a big amount of money in setting it up. They can learn from their failures without wrecking their savings and if they are successful, they can move to their own place. In this way, they also do not need to invest money in buying expensive machines, they can rent those existing in the megahub for the actual use by paying little amounts.

For more information about Megahub and to use its services, write an email to info@megahub.it or check its website: www.megahub.it

Conclusions

This post is my thank you note to Silvano and his colleagues, Martino and Pietro, for their generosity and helpfulness in teaching me all about 3D printing. I think that the basic idea of Megahub, as a supportive space to help persons to learn about technological innovations and to help young entrepreneurs in converting their ideas into reality, is a wonderful opportunity, which all cities should have if they are serious about nurturing young entrepreneurs.

The image above has Silvano showing a 3D printed guitar with colourful LED lights in it, that they had made in Megahub (the mask is inevitable since these are COVID-19 days!).

If I was not already so busy, I think that I would have loved to learn more about woodwork at Megahub and make wooden objects, which was one of my secret desires when I was young! Who knows, may be, I won't be always so busy and one day, find time to dedicate myself to learning it at Megahub.

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