Consciousness is one of those topics that makes everyone uncomfortable, scientists, philosophers?

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Consciousness May Have Created the Universe – This Is Very Strange

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56,945 views Feb 2, 2025
Consciousness is one of those topics that makes everyone uncomfortable—scientists, philosophers, and just about anyone who dares to question the nature of reality. Why? Because, despite all our technological advancements and scientific breakthroughs, we still don’t have a clear idea of what consciousness actually is or where it comes from. It’s the elephant in the room, the mystery that science can’t seem to crack. We can map the brain and understand its functions, but that still doesn’t explain why we experience thoughts, feelings, or self-awareness.

Some argue that consciousness is nothing more than the byproduct of biological processes, a lucky accident of evolution. But what if that’s not the whole story? What if consciousness isn’t a mere side effect of neurons firing but something far more fundamental—something that’s intertwined with the fabric of the universe itself?
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Consciousness May Have Created the Universe – This Is Very Strange

56,945 views Feb 2, 2025
Consciousness is one of those topics that makes everyone uncomfortable—scientists, philosophers, and just about anyone who dares to question the nature of reality. Why? Because, despite all our technological advancements and scientific breakthroughs, we still don’t have a clear idea of what consciousness actually is or where it comes from. It’s the elephant in the room, the mystery that science can’t seem to crack. We can map the brain and understand its functions, but that still doesn’t explain why we experience thoughts, feelings, or self-awareness.

Some argue that consciousness is nothing more than the byproduct of biological processes, a lucky accident of evolution. But what if that’s not the whole story? What if consciousness isn’t a mere side effect of neurons firing but something far more fundamental—something that’s intertwined with the fabric of the universe itself?

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Science teaches us that the laws of physics are ridiculously almost unbelievably fine-tuned for you and me.
Take the electromagnetic force for example its value is perfectly adjusted to allow Stars diffuse protons and neutrons producing carbon the essential building block of life then there’s the strong nuclear force which holds protons and neutrons together if it were
slightly stronger the universe would only consider consist of hydrogen if it were weaker hydrogen wouldn’t exist at all.

In either case Life as we know it wouldn’t be possible even the energy in empty space seems precisely set to allow intelligent life to develop. But that’s not the whole story in total about 12 parameters have been identified as being just right for Life.
Think about it if any one of these parameters were slightly different life the stars and even the universe itself would look drastically different.

If they existed at all could this astonishing balance really be chalked up to random chance
are we just incredibly lucky to be living in a universe where everything happened to align perfectly or is there something deeper perhaps even intentional behind this fine tuning?

Could this suggest that the Universe was designed with life in mind and if so why
is the universe so perfectly fine-tuned for life could this incredible Precision
be a sign of intentional design or is it simply an astonishing coincidence?

Are we really special here on Earth it’s easy to believe we’re at the center of everything after all Humanity has spent Millennia thinking we’re unique the Pinnacle of life in a
universe that seems perfectly designed to support us.
We look around and see a planet teaming with life orbiting a stable star in a Galaxy that allows us to thrive from the precise tilt of the Earth’s axis to the perfect balance of oxygen in our atmosphere.
It’s hard not to feel like the cosmos has somehow arranged itself in our favor but are we really that special is life’s Earth supporting environment a cosmic accident or is there something more intentional behind it.
The odds of everything aligning so perfectly for life here in this one small corner of the universe seem almost too good to be true. Is it possible that the Universe was tailored not just for life in general but for life on Earth specifically these questions lead us to consider whether the delicate balance we observe across the cosmos is a result of pure luck or if we’re part of a larger purposeful design and if Earth is so special then what does that say about the rest of the universe?
Is it possible that similar conditions could Exist Elsewhere or are we truly alone in this far last expanse?

Okay I’ve been asking a lot of questions without giving answers but let’s take a moment to explore one line of reasoning that physicists often turn to when grappling with the universe’s fine-tuning.

Most physicists now argue that in some sense the universe could not have been otherwise this idea has given rise to several different answers collectively known as the anthropic principles.

At its core the anthropic principles suggest that the Universe must have the properties it does because if it didn’t we wouldn’t be here to.

Observe it in other words the universe appears fine-tuned for life because only
in a universe that allows life would intelligent beings exist to ask these
questions in the first place it’s a bit of circular logic but it’s one way to
explain why the universe seems so perfectly suited for life.

Let me break down what I just said for you in case you’re a bit confused the anthropic principle is basically saying that the Universe seems perfectly set up for life because well if it weren’t we wouldn’t be here. to notice it it’s a bit like looking at the world through a pair of glasses that are perfectly shaped for your eyes of course the world looks clear because you’re wearing the glasses that make it possible to see it that way.

Here’s a simple analogy for you to get it imagine you’re at a party and there’s a giant birthday cake in the middle of the room the cake just happens to be exactly your favorite flavor with all your favorite toppings it seems like it was made specifically for you.
But maybe it’s not that, the cake was baked just for you maybe you’re at this particular party because you were invited to a place where your favorite cake happened to be served in the same way the anthropic principles suggests that the Universe isn’t necessarily designed for us but that we exist because we live in a universe that just happens to have the right ingredients for life.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the universe was customize for us but it does explain why it looks so perfectly tuned for life because if it weren’t we wouldn’t be around to notice it. There are different versions of the anthropic principle the weak anthropic principle simply states that the universe conditions must alive for our existence which is why they appear fine-tuned. But then there’s the strong anthropic principle which goes a step further by suggesting that the Universe had to develop in such a way that life and perhaps intelligent life would eventually arise.
This version implies that life is not just a cosmic fluke but a built-in feature of the
universe but these ideas raise even more questions if the universe had no choice but to be life friendly why is there some underlying law that demands life or are we just incredibly fortunate that everything lined up so perfectly and if life was an inevitable outcome does that point to design or just the natural progression of physics.

Most physicists have no time for ideas like this to say that this is all for us that is just completely bizarre they might argue after all the universe is vast and we occupy only a tiny insignificant part of it.

To think that the entire Cosmos filled with billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars exist solely to make life possible on this one small planet sounds to many incredibly self-centered they’ll point out that much of the universe is inhospitable to life.
Most of space is either freezing cold or blazing hot bombarded by radiation and filled with vacuums where Life as we know it would instantly perish.

If the universe were designed for us they argue it doesn’t seem to have done a very efficient job but even so the fact remains that life does exist Against All Odds and that raises questions that are hard to ignore perhaps then it is the other way around according to another formulation of the anthropic principle the universe only exists because we do we conjure it up with our Consciousness.
In this view it’s not that the universe is fine-tuned to allow for our existence but rather that our existence as conscious beings somehow brings the universe into being.
This idea flips everything on its head instead of the universe giving rise to us we through our ability to observe think and experience might be giving rise to the universe itself?

It’s a radical shift in perspective that some physicists and philosophers have toyed
with if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?

In this case it’s more like if no one is there to observe the universe does it even
exist? This version of the anthropic principle suggests that the universe is not a passive backdrop that exists independently of us instead it’s intimately connected to our Consciousness shaped by the very Act of observation.

Without us or beings like us there would be no Universe to speak of Consciousness is one of those topics that makes everyone uncomfortable scientists philosophers and just about anyone who dares to question the nature of reality?

Why because despite all our technological advancements and scientific breakthroughs we still don’t have a clear idea of what Consciousnessactually is or where it comes from?

It’s the elephant in the room the mystery that science can’t seem to crack we can
map the brain and understand its functions but that still doesn’t explain why we experience thoughts feelings or self-awareness.
Some argue that Consciousness is nothing more than the byproduct of biological processes a lucky accident of evolution but what if that’s not the whole story what if Consciousness isn’t a mere side effect of neurons firing but something more fundamental something that’s intertwined with the fabric of the universe itself?

Here’s where things get controversial what if Consciousness isn’t produced by the brain at all what if the brain is simply a receiver or filter like a radio tuning into a signal that already exists this idea flips the conventional understanding of Consciousness on its head.
Instead of the brain creating awareness it may be that Consciousness is a universal Force something that exists independently of physical matter this concept ties into theories like pans psychism which suggest that Consciousness is a fundamental aspect of all matter down to the smallest particles.

In this view Consciousness doesn’t just arise in humans or animals it’s embedded in everything the atoms in your body they possess a form of awareness the particles that make up the Stars they too have some rudimentary form of Consciousness if this sounds bizarre consider that quantum physics has already shown us that particles behave differently when observed. As if reality depends on some form of interaction with Consciousness but here’s the real mind Bender what if our Consciousness doesn’t just perceive reality but creates it?

Some interpretations of quantum mechanics suggests that the universe is not fully determined until it’s observed that particles exist in a state of probability until Consciousness collapses them into a defined reality.
If this is true then Consciousness isn’t just passive it’s an active force that
shapes the world around us this is where things get even stranger.
If reality is shaped by Consciousness we must ask what was the universe like before there were any conscious beings to AB observe it.
Was it a sea of Endless Possibilities waiting to be brought into existence or could it be that the Universe only really began when Consciousness arrived to interact with it quantum mechanics.
Already challenges our understanding of reality with its multiverses superpositions and paradoxes like Schrodinger’s cat both alive and dead at the same time until someone opens the box to observe it. These strange phenomena suggests that reality doesn’t behave in a way that makes sense to our everyday experiences but some physicists have proposed that reality is even stranger the universe only becomes real when we look at it John archal Wheeler a towering figure in 20th century physics took the strange findings of quantum mechanics and pushed them further forming the concept of the participatory Universe.

He proposed that our observations don’t just reveal reality they actually create it but for wheeler making a Quantum measurement doesn’t just give us information it Alters the course of the universe by collapsing the Myriad of possible outcomes into just one.

This idea stems from quantum mechanics and the famous double slit experiment in this experiment light behaves either as a particle or a wave depending on how we observe it.
If we observe the path of the photon it behaves like a particle if we don’t it
behaves like a wave the most baffling part is that photons seem to know whether they’re being observed and adjust their behavior accordingly but wheeler took this further asking what if the photon doesn’t even exist as a particle or wave until we observe it?

In other words the active observation may not just reveal reality it may create it
if wheeler is right then reality as we under tand it is in a constant state of
flux only becoming real when we hammer down those iron posts with our conscious observation before that moment of observation everything is a nebulous cloud of probabilities.

Wheeler’s ideas become even more mind-bending when applied to the cosmos he proposed a cosmic scale version of the double slit experiment involving light from a distant quasar a bright astronomical object billions of light years away.

The light from this quasar can travel to us by bending around a massive Galaxy splitting into two paths due to the warping of Spacetime caused by the Galaxy’s gravitational field this effect is known as gravitational lensing the light from each path forms two images of the quasar on either side of the Galaxy.

Now if we point a telescope at each path we see photons traveling along one route or the other behaving like particles but wheeler suggested if we set up our observation so that photons from both Roots hit a detector simultaneously they would behave like waves arriving as a single unified wave rather than distinct particles.

In this scenario our Act of observation in the present would seemingly determine whether light behaved as a particle or a wave not just in the moment but for the light that left the quasar a billion years ago.

For wheeler this experiment meant something profound the universe doesn’t exist in any fixed objective sense not even in the past until we measure it.

What we observed today has the power to affect events that by all accounts should have happened long before any conscious observers exist in a sense the universe itself is participatory our observations thoughts and conscious decisions actively shape its past present and future.

If Wheeler’s participatory Universe holds any truth then the implications are staggering, it would mean that the Universe in some profound way needs conscious observers like us to exist.
Without observation reality remains a bundle of probabilities with no fixed past present or future.
Our very Act of observing the universe doesn’t just reveal its workings but brings it into being this flips our understanding of the universe entirely instead of existing independently of us the universe may rely on conscious beings to manifest in any meaningful way.
This idea doesn’t just challenge our conception of time and space it suggests that reality itself is a kind of cocreation between the cosmos and the minds that observe it.

If this is true then we are more than just passive inhabitants of the universe
we are active participants in shaping its existence from the door of time to
its ultimate fate as if Wheeler’s participatory Universe weren’t mindboggling enough another interpretation of quantum mechanics offers an equally wild vision of reality.

Hugh Everett’s many world’s hypothesis while wheeler suggested that observation collapses possibilities into one reality Everett propose that every possible outcome of a Quantum event actually happens but in different parallel universes.

Imagine every decision you make every Quantum measurement splits the universe in two in one Universe you made the choice to go left and in another you were right both versions of you exist living out those separate possibilities but in parallel universes this means that every possible outcome no matter how small plays out somewhere in one of an infinite number of alternate realities.
So while Wheeler’s universe relies on observation to hammer down one version of reality everit’s many worlds hypothesis posits that the Universe never needs to collapse into a single outcome at all instead every possibility plays out in a branching Multiverse with each Observer experiencing only their specific Branch.

This also raises questions about the role of Consciousness in both interpretations in the many world’s hypothesis could conscious observation be the very thing that selects which branch of the universe we experience, is our Consciousness not just participating in the universe but actively choosing which version of reality we inhabit?

Both both Wheeler’s participatory universe and Everett’s many worlds hypothesis challenge the idea that reality exists independently of us if wheeler is right then our conscious observations create the universe’s structure past present and future if ever it is right then each of us inhabits a unique Universe shaped by the infinite branching of quantum events.
Either way these interpretations suggest that we are not passive Spectators but
integral components of the cosmic equation we’ve come a long way in this video but one thing I want to point out is that both of these interpretations Wheeler’s participatory universe and Everett’s many worlds leave us with a profound realization we are not just mere observers of the universe but active participants in its unfolding reality.

Whether it’s our conscious observation shaping the past present and future or our decisions branching off into Infinite alternate realities the cosmos is deeply intertwined with our very existence.

The more we explore these ideas the more it becomes clear that reality is far Stranger than we ever imagined.

Thank you for watching today’s video I really hope you enjoyed it please subscribe to our Channel and also check out this video where we talked about the Multiverse and Schrodinger’s Cat;

And I’ll see you there