Consciousness, Cosmology & the Meaning of Life (Part I)

Abstract

In this long essay, I strive to answer the question whether life is just a meaningless rash of complexity – a planetary surface growth in a physical universe, which cares not a dot for biological or conscious survival, and in which black holes and disintegrating galaxies hold the ultimate fate of all. Conscious beings are launched by their very existence on a quest to discover the essential meaning in life that makes sense of the entire process. Effectively the world is divided between two complementary realms, the subjective realm of conscious experience and the objective realm of physical existence which we access indirectly through the former, although we recognize physical existence, and with it our biological bodies and brains, to be essential to the existence of our conscious mental states. Central in this resolution of our sense of meaning and purpose is preserving the diversity of life and the robustness of the biosphere, so that that the future generations of life and humanity can prosper and further expand the vistas of conscious experience.

Part I of this two-part essay includes: The Existential Dilemma; The Paradox of Consciousness; Free-will, Determinism and Accountability; Quantum Reality and the Conscious Observer; A Perfect Storm at the Edge of Chaos; Enter the Holographic Brain; Origin Myths and Apocalyptic Allegories; Coming to Terms with the Cosmological Universe.