[MD] Science

[Arlo Bensinger]

All,

Does "experience create reality"?

In regard to the "science" issues being discussed 
now across several different threads, I stumbled 
upon an interesting article today from the May 
2009 Discover magazine. Titled "The Biocentric 
Universe Theory: Life Creates Time, Space, and 
the Cosmos Itself", it offers some criticisms of 
directions scientific thought has gone, as well 
as opening up some new ideas about where it could go.

  Some excerpts:

"We humans, too, lie at the heart of a great web 
of space and time whose threads are connected 
according to laws that dwell in our minds."

"For centuries, scientists regarded Berkeley’s 
argument as a philosophical sideshow and 
continued to build physical models based on the 
assumption of a separate universe “out there” 
into which we have each individually arrived. 
These models presume the existence of one 
essential reality that prevails with us or 
without us. Yet since the 1920s, quantum physics 
experiments have routinely shown the opposite: 
Results do depend on whether anyone is observing."

"The strangeness of quantum reality is far from 
the only argument against the old model of 
reality. There is also the matter of the 
fine-tuning of the cosmos. Many fundamental 
traits, forces, and physical constants—like the 
charge of the electron or the strength of 
gravity—make it appear as if everything about the 
physical state of the universe were tailor-made for life."

"At the moment there are only four explanations 
for this mystery. The first two give us little to 
work with from a scientific perspective. One is 
simply to argue for incredible coincidence. 
Another is to say, “God did it,” which explains nothing even if it is true."

"The third explanation invokes a concept called 
the anthropic principle,? first articulated by 
Cambridge astrophysicist Brandon Carter in 1973. 
This principle holds that we must find the right 
conditions for life in our universe, because if 
such life did not exist, we would not be here to find those conditions."

"The final option is biocentrism, which holds 
that the universe is created by life and not the other way around."

"In daily life, space and time are harmless 
illusions. A problem arises only because, by 
treating these as fundamental and independent 
things, science picks a completely wrong starting 
point for investigations into the nature of reality."

"By inclination and training these scientists are 
obsessed with mathematical descriptions of the 
world. If only, after leaving work, they would 
look out with equal seriousness over a pond and 
watch the schools of minnows rise to the surface. 
The fish, the ducks, and the cormorants, paddling 
out beyond the pads and the cattails, are all part of the greater answer."

"Biocentrism should unlock the cages in which 
Western science has unwittingly confined itself. 
Allowing the observer into the equation should 
open new approaches to understanding cognition, 
from unraveling the nature of consciousness to 
developing thinking machines that experience the world the same way we do."

Full article: 
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/may/01-the-biocentric-universe-life-creates-time-space-cosmos

Arlo