In a modern era, we have begun to gradually abandon the notion of an immaterial soul, with religions being the only remaining islands where this idea is upheld as a living tradition. We have employed tools designed to explore the material world in our quest for immaterial substances. We have used telescopes to seek God in the heavens and microscopes to search for the soul within our bodies. Our efforts, however, have proven unsuccessful.
The new era of information technology and new cosmology theories related to mathematical theories of the universe can, maybe, shed a light on the ancient question of soul, consciousness and even provide a hint on the idea of God.
The following text consists of my very personal thoughts - meditations about human nature. It is filled with parallels drawn from bits and pieces primarily from the field of information technology. As is customary with parallels, one can draw them between anything. At first glance, they may seem logical and make sense; however, they can be far from the truth. Seemingly natural parallels can be merely artificial connections, overstating reality.
The context of interpretation offers tools that enable us to change perspectives. In this case, the interpretive context revolves around artificial intelligence, which I find very interesting. What catches my attention is how mathematics and various data structures, being immaterial, allow us to reconsider and acknowledge immaterialism when discussing subjects common to various religions.
Only a couple of decades have passed since neurophysiologist Warren McCulloch and mathematician Walter Pitts collaborated on an experiment that is likely to change the way we live. Inspired by the workings of the brain’s neural network, they constructed an electrical circuit that simulated a simple neural network.
Over time, as computers improved, scientists began simulating neural networks and diving deeper into the field of Artificial Intelligence. During that time, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have grown into a well-regarded field of study with many real-world applications.
The significance and appeal of Artificial Neural Networks lie in their ability to reveal relationships within complex datasets of seemingly unrelated information. This capability exceeds the ability of human intellect to understand complex relationships.
The result of a training of ANN is a data structure - nodes, the computed weights and simple functions used by nodes to compute the results. These factors shape the unique properties of the trained neural network. Not only is knowledge stored in numerical form within an ANN, but Large Language Models also show that meaning can be encapsulated within the simple numerical structure of word vectors.
We tend to think of artificial neural networks as an extension of human intellect. However, this is a misleading idea. Learning in ANN is an autonomous process that, with a bit of simplification, does not require any conscious or intellectual activity. Yet, it is capable of capturing meaningful relationships between a number of variables.
Does the human brain have the same capability? Yes, but it is not the human intellect as we would have expect. The term used when describing this capability of the brain is called statistical learning. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3112001/.
"In its broadest sense, statistical learning entails the discovery of patterns in the input. This type of learning could range, in principle, from the supervised learning found in operant conditioning (learning that a certain behavior leads to reinforcement or punishment), to unsupervised pattern detection, to the sophisticated probability learning exemplified in Bayesian models."
From the moment we are born we absorb everything that hits our senses. The early years of our lives are the years when we learn the most about the world. It is during these early stages of life that a child learns one of the most complex skills - speech. By the age of five, a child can talk in a grammatically correct way with a vocabulary exceeding 5000 words. This learning runs nearly unconsciously. It is driven by observation, trial and error. Early learning is a form of supervised learning, similar to supervised learning in an Artificial Neural Network. It requires human interaction to label the inputs and outputs. In this context, parents assume the role of labeling inputs and outputs for their children, mirroring the process known in artificial intelligence.
What we build from childhood is this statistical system responsible for not only collecting vast amounts of data but also building relationships between them. It is the system that drives our everyday lives.
Now, if you think this is similar to what human subconsciousness is, you are right. The statistical system is at the core of human subconsciousness. Other terms commonly used for the brain's statistical system are unconsciousness or intuition. They all relate to the same functionality of the brain.
If we are looking for the counterpart of artificial neural networks in a living organisms, we have to look at the intuition rather than intellect.
It is the subconsciousness that is able to perceive the world in a very detail.
It is the intuition that is a direct product of human subconscious activities.
The mathematical model of the Artificial Neural Network finds the best solution out of the available ones. The statistical brain does the same. Using senses, it collects data about the world. It then constructs the most accurate mental model possible that reflects all the data it has collected. It is the sweet spot searcher. The statistical brain does not question the world. It accepts it.
Questioning falls within the domain of intellect. Intellect actively seeks new experiences that provide fresh data for our statistical brains. More than that, the intellect is also a simulation engine. It does not depend solely on the new sensory data. It takes existing knowledge and create virtual experiments. It is what the thinking is all about. Thinking is simulation.
Once a simulation produces results, the statistical part of the brain processes them, and they will eventually become part of our worldview. The intellect is the sixth sense for the statistical brain. Cooperation of intellect and statistical brain can be a blessing or a curse. It allows us to go beyond our observable reality. But it also bears the weight of asserting its own truth.
Human intelligence is then simply a sum of intellect and a subconscious statistical brain.
More on the intellect and intelligence in a next article.
The place where the statistical brain meets consciousness is the mind. It is a theater where the subconsciousness plays the movie for the consciousness.
Thanks to the statistical brain, our consciousness perceives reality not in a form of photons and waves but in a form of objects and meanings. Only after the subconsciousness creates the reflection of reality do we have the impression of the physical world.
Not only is the mind the place where subconsciousness talks to consciousness, it is also a place where consciousness can express its intentions. The mind mediates the intentions between the consciousness and statistical brain. It is a two way interface. The intention of grabbing a cup of coffee translates into a series of coordinated muscular movements. The mind shields consciousness from the details of small electrical impulses that need to be generated to move a very specific set of muscles in very specific proportions and sequence. We consciously express our intentions of 'What' and the statistical part of the brain knows the 'How'.
The theory of the Universe based on mathematics is interesting. It suggests that at the very core of the Universe, beyond molecules, atoms, and elementary particles, there is pure math. In a computational universe, mathematics not only describes the Universe, it is a fundamental element of Universe.
If this is true, then we, our brains, are part of this computational space. There would be no separation between the computational universe and us. Our life is a lifelong computation. The brain is a product of this ongoing process. At the end of our lives, our brain is a large data structure resulting from this extensive computation. It is the data encoded in our statistical brain that defines our personality.
Why is this important? There is one property of the artificial neural network we have not talked about yet. It goes somewhat unnoticed; however, it is heavily used. In computer science the data structure of the artificial neural network can be stored and restored. This allows the transfer of knowledge from one system to another without the need for relearning. In the world of IT systems, data is the most protected asset. Every piece of hardware will become old, damaged, and eventually get replaced. However, as long as we have copies of data, we can reconstruct faulty systems.
Now if our universe is computation-based, and our brain is a result of computation, what happens to the information in our brains at the time we die? In a quantum universe, information is never lost.
Could it be that the information in our brain is stored in an information space of the mathematical universe? Answering yes allows for the separation of the body, the vehicle, and the personality, the serializable data structure. It would mean that the brain's data structure, our personality, could outlive the physical bodies. This would allow the data, the personality, to continue evolving when reloaded into another vehicle — another brain, presenting a case for incarnations and reincarnations. Similarly, the personal data structure could be part of an even bigger computation within a hierarchy of computations. I think the aim here is clear.
Would this line of thinking lead to answer of origin of soul?
The preceding section offered insights into how a mathematical data structure of the brain could correlate with soul.
The remaining piece in the puzzle of existence is what gives life and a sense of awareness to the stone-cold data structure, thus touching upon the question of consciousness.
The way we experience consciousness changes throughout the day, and even more so over the years. We are conscious in different ways as newborns or children than we are when we are adults or elderly. Our consciousness varies when we wake up, during the day, and of course, during the night. Furthermore, our consciousness shifts dramatically after using psychedelics. It seems that the nature of our consciousness aligns with the development and state of our brains. The form of consciousness is influenced, or rather defined, by the neural network state of our brains. Instead of consciousness itself, we can talk about the forms of consciousness. What remains when the form is removed is a formless quality waiting to be imprinted.
We can refer to this formless consciousness as protoconsciousness. Like water takes the perfect shape of the filled volume, protoconsciousness takes the form of the data structure it occupies. The data structure of personality colors the protoconsciousness.
Only when the protoconsciousness encounters the data structure of personality does the diverse array of human and animal consciousness emerge. Perhaps all conscious forms share the same formless protoconsciousness, not only among humans but also among animals. When I speak of sharing, I don't mean it in terms of similarities between organisms, but rather as a universal quality.
Protoconsciousness can be truly a fundamental and integral aspect of the universe. And even maybe a shadow of the Divine.