https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussi ... ent/795802
This "thesis" is about formulating a paradigm that unifies scientific explanations with panpsychist/spiritual or theistic ones. Something that both describes the content or workings of conscious awareness and the physical observable world - the fundamental interactions of the physical world paralleled with a theory of mind explanation, and where the dichotomy between them arises naturally from the same unifying dynamic. — Benj96
A prescient thought! About 15 years ago, I had a similar idea --- based, not on philosophical or religious treatises, but on Quantum & Information theories --- and eventually wrote a non-academic thesis to expand on the basic premise : that "mind stuff" is the essence of reality. In the late 20th century, quantum scientists began to equate Energy with Information*1. That is the reverse of Shannon's equation of meaningful Information with the dissipation of energy (Entropy). Just as the invisible intangible power behind all change (Energy) was equated by Einstein with tangible Matter (E=MC^2), I proposed to equate Energy with Information*2, and hence with Mind (the knower of information)*3.
That was the beginning of my attempt to solve the "Hard Problem" of how actively-seeking Sentient Minds could emerge from an insentient world of passive Matter pummeled by formless energy. Thesis postulate : the big C is merely a highly evolved form of Energy. In essence, the Big Bang Singularity (the Acorn) functioned like a computer. It processed pre-existing Causal Power into the creative & destructive activity we now call Energy & Entropy. And from that ongoing information-processing, great oaks and great minds would grow. Thenceforth, the program of Evolution was a "unifying dynamic", integrating raw data (bits of information) into complex assemblies with novel properties beyond those of the subordinate parts of whole systems.
The "dichotomy" between parts & wholes is bridged by the "unifying dynamic" of EnFormAction*4 : the act of creating novel forms of fundamental Information/Energy. The Form of a thing is its logical structure, that rational minds recognize as unique entities (things). So, that's my "theory of explanation" for how Minds emerged from Matter. I won't go further in this post, but the online thesis and blog expand on this foundation to explain other related scientific & philosophical mysteries. However, since you asked, I will mention that this thesis implies the pre-Big Bang existence of an Energy/Information Source, similar to what Plato called "Logos" and Aristotle called "First Cause" or "Prime Mover"*5.
Since the fundamental element of this theory is Information, I call my Programmer, the Enformer. The notion that mental information is the universal Cause is similar to Panpsychism. But, to avoid confusion with ancient "spiritual" notions of a Tyrant in heaven, I coined a variety of alternative labels for the axiomatic creator of our gradually maturing world. And to avoid implications with the ancient belief system of Atomism/Materialism, I gave the thesis a signifying name*6.
*1. The mass-energy-information equivalence principle :
information is not just physical, as already demonstrated, but it has a finite and quantifiable mass while it stores information.
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5123794
*2. Information is mental :
the communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/information
Note -- Knowledge & intelligence would be useless & meaningless without consciousness.
*3. Knower :
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguists, and scientists. Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered consciousness. ___Wikipedia
*4. EnFormAction :
*** Metaphorically, it's the Will-power of G*D, which is the First Cause of everything in creation. Aquinas called the Omnipotence of God the "Primary Cause", so EFA is the general cause of everything in the world. Energy, Matter, Gravity, Life, Mind are secondary creative causes, each with limited application.
*** All are also forms of Information, the "difference that makes a difference". It works by directing causation from negative to positive, cold to hot, ignorance to knowledge. That's the basis of mathematical ratios (Greek "Logos", Latin "Ratio" = reason). A : B :: C : D. By interpreting those ratios we get meaning and reasons.
*** The concept of a river of causation running through the world in various streams has been interpreted in materialistic terms as Momentum, Impetus, Force, Energy, etc, and in spiritualistic idioms as Will, Love, Conatus, and so forth. EnFormAction is all of those.
https://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html
*5. The Enformer :
AKA, the Creator. The presumed eternal source of all information, as encoded in the Big Bang Sing-ularity. That ability to convert conceptual Forms into actual Things, to transform infinite possibilities into finite actualities, and to create space & time, matter & energy from essentially no-thing is called the power of EnFormAction. Due to our ignorance of anything beyond space-time though, the postulated enforming agent remains undefined. I simply label it "G*D".
https://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html
*6. Enformationism :
*** As a scientific paradigm, the thesis of Enformationism is intended to be an update to the obsolete 19th century paradigm of Materialism. Since the recent advent of Quantum Physics, the materiality of reality has been watered down. Now we know that matter is a form of energy, and that energy is a form of Information.
*** As a religious philosophy, the creative power of Enformationism is envisioned as a more realistic version of the antiquated religious notions of Spiritualism. Since our world had a beginning, it's hard to deny the concept of creation. So, an infinite deity is proposed to serve as both the energetic Enformer and the malleable substance of the enformed world.
https://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html