At one point or another we’ve all thought about how exciting or terrifying it might be to actually encounter intelligent alien beings from another world. What would you do if you were the FIRST human to make contact with the aliens? This helpful guide outlines a few simple things to remember when you encounter E.T. (Such as don’t call them E.T.). Link
At one point or another we’ve all thought about how exciting or terrifying it might be to actually encounter intelligent alien beings from another world. What would you do if you were the FIRST human to make contact with the aliens? This helpful guide outlines a few simple things to remember when you encounter E.T. (Such as don’t call them E.T.). Link
Cosmologists now-a-days generally adhere to some form of the Anthropic Principle. Which dictates several conclusions; A) There is no way to study a universe in which we do not exist. B) There is no such thing as a universe in which conscious life does not exist. C) Conscious life is the primary constraint within which the universe is manifest.
I observe C, and all these other constraints like the law of identity and the law of non-contradiction, which states that a thing is itself and cannot be some contradictory thing, are really necessary for the conscious experience of them. Perhaps in a state of quantum superposition a square-circle could exist, but then we'd never be able to experience such a thing. Experience does not allow the existence of self-contradictory phenomena.
So, I maintain that Self-consciousness provides these constraints. Whereby, if quantum decoherence does occur, it occurs with respect to self-consciousness. But again, this does not put the individual ego or self, who also appears as phenomena within consciousness, any determination over that which is external to it. The constraint is a constraint and not a process or ability someone could weild, and it is this constraint which gives us apparent existence to begin with. So it acts over and above all other phenomena including the notions of "existence" and "universe".
Here I should state that self-consciousness as a constraint does not elevated self-conscious entities to the role of creator, it simply means that in any real universe there will be entities which are self-conscious. It is similar to Wheeler's Anticipatory Anthropic Principle.
It basically puts self-conscious entities near the center of the universe, as all apparently existing things appear so only in reference to the self-conscious entity. Apart from such an entity nothing appears to exist or has apparent existence. Nothing could be said to exist. Furthermore with the perception of space-time being relative to the position of the observer, in an observerless universe there would be no space-time.
Which accords nicely with the etymological root of the word "Exist" which comes from Latin "existere" meaning; to present an appearance [to an observer].