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Information—Consciousness—Reality: How a New Understanding of the Universe Can Help Answer Age-Old Questions of Existence
This open access book chronicles the rise of a new scientific paradigm offering novel insights into the age-old enigmas of existence. Over 300 years ago, the human mind discovered the machine code of mathematics. By utilizing abstract thought systems, humans began to decode the workings of the cosmos. From this understanding, the current scientific paradigm emerged, ultimately discovering the gift of technology. Today, however, our island of knowledge is surrounded by ever longer shores of ignorance. Science appears to have hit a dead end when confronted with the nature of reality and consciousness. In this fascinating and accessible volume, James Glattfelder explores a radical paradigm shift uncovering the ontology of reality. It is found to be information-theoretic and participatory, yielding a computational and programmable universe.
- GenresSciencePhilosophy
1332 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 10, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 5, 2020
The author holds a M.S. degree in theoretical physics and a PhD degree in complex systems. As the title suggests, his goal is to draw upon his academic background to “help answer age-old questions of existence.” This is a Herculean undertaking, and there’s little doubt that Glattfelder put in the time to research as many relevant topics, from Platonism to classic physics, to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, to information science, to complexity theory, network theory, panpsychism, consciousness (psi) theory, and more in order to address the age old questions of existence: What can I know? What is reality? What am I (what is consciousness)?
Lord knows, there are scores of books by physicists, ex-physicists, neuroscientists, (of course philosophers) that delve into these issues. They typically begin with acknowledgements to science, and end with quasi-religious or quasi spiritual theories that really are untethered to science. Glattfelder at least begins by taking a highly mathematical approach in chapters 2-4 as he attempts to essentially describe all of nature. He tries to retain his mathematical approach generally up to chapter 11. Some of the formalism returns in chapter 14 in the context of integrated information theory, but most of chapter 14 is devoid of any sort of formalism. It should be mentioned that many of the elements of the exhibited equations weren’t particularly well-defined, making the mathematical parts of the book even more challenging.
His concluding chapter (15) prior to the epilogue lays down some models of the human mind, but they are poorly described or captioned, and therefore difficult to understand. The entirety of chapter one is devoted to mapping out how readers should approach the book. The road map is insanely complex, and one must wonder how badly the book must have been assimilated, that it requires that much instruction devoted to how to read it in the first place. Glattfelder does mention that he researched topics as they came to mind, with essentially one train of thought leading to another that needed to be explored. It truly seems as though he wasn’t working from a general plan or outline. It does not help that he does not cite and explain his exhaustive references. Instead he quotes them verbatim, leaving out the middle-man (himself) as an agent of explanation.
The disappointment at the end of the book is that none of the questions that he proposed answering really get answered. He states what his own belief system is, and it is not much more than a faith-based belief constructed from cherry-picked bits of science and philosophy: “I believe in the computational engine of the universe—reality’s information-theoretic ontology. I believe that consciousness shares the same innate essence as the “material.” I believe in the capacity of consciousness to influence reality. I believe in reality’s participatory ontology. I believe in the entelechy of existence and its teleological arrow striving for ever higher levels of information processing. I am mesmerized by the reality-topology of the transcendental multiverse. But perhaps most importantly, I give meaning to the reality I create. This translates into an ethical maxim: “I am fully accountable!”
Oy, that’s where the reader ends up after 617 pages.
My opinion (and it’s only an opinion) is that science-minded readers will like the formalism up front even with its sparse explication. Those more spiritually oriented who look for connections between science and spirituality will like the last few chapters, and will likely believe that they have been shown some sort of connection between science and spirituality. They haven’t. I kept looking for science-based answers to the “age old questions of existence.” Alas.
Lord knows, there are scores of books by physicists, ex-physicists, neuroscientists, (of course philosophers) that delve into these issues. They typically begin with acknowledgements to science, and end with quasi-religious or quasi spiritual theories that really are untethered to science. Glattfelder at least begins by taking a highly mathematical approach in chapters 2-4 as he attempts to essentially describe all of nature. He tries to retain his mathematical approach generally up to chapter 11. Some of the formalism returns in chapter 14 in the context of integrated information theory, but most of chapter 14 is devoid of any sort of formalism. It should be mentioned that many of the elements of the exhibited equations weren’t particularly well-defined, making the mathematical parts of the book even more challenging.
His concluding chapter (15) prior to the epilogue lays down some models of the human mind, but they are poorly described or captioned, and therefore difficult to understand. The entirety of chapter one is devoted to mapping out how readers should approach the book. The road map is insanely complex, and one must wonder how badly the book must have been assimilated, that it requires that much instruction devoted to how to read it in the first place. Glattfelder does mention that he researched topics as they came to mind, with essentially one train of thought leading to another that needed to be explored. It truly seems as though he wasn’t working from a general plan or outline. It does not help that he does not cite and explain his exhaustive references. Instead he quotes them verbatim, leaving out the middle-man (himself) as an agent of explanation.
The disappointment at the end of the book is that none of the questions that he proposed answering really get answered. He states what his own belief system is, and it is not much more than a faith-based belief constructed from cherry-picked bits of science and philosophy: “I believe in the computational engine of the universe—reality’s information-theoretic ontology. I believe that consciousness shares the same innate essence as the “material.” I believe in the capacity of consciousness to influence reality. I believe in reality’s participatory ontology. I believe in the entelechy of existence and its teleological arrow striving for ever higher levels of information processing. I am mesmerized by the reality-topology of the transcendental multiverse. But perhaps most importantly, I give meaning to the reality I create. This translates into an ethical maxim: “I am fully accountable!”
Oy, that’s where the reader ends up after 617 pages.
My opinion (and it’s only an opinion) is that science-minded readers will like the formalism up front even with its sparse explication. Those more spiritually oriented who look for connections between science and spirituality will like the last few chapters, and will likely believe that they have been shown some sort of connection between science and spirituality. They haven’t. I kept looking for science-based answers to the “age old questions of existence.” Alas.
December 7, 2025
One extra star for the sheer ambition and effort of the undertaking. A curated list from the humongous citations/references could easily function as a canonical representative of modern western thought.
Glattfelder perceives the narrative of humanity as a hero’s epic journey - the hard won accumulation of god like powers over the natural world (the triumph of post Enlightenment materialist-reductionist scientific worldview), the crisis of meaning and spirituality when the initial euphoria fades upon confronting the paradoxes of knowledge (incompleteness theorems and algorithmic undecidability, quantum measurement, elusive reconciliation of GR and QFT, missing science of consciousness) that he sees going hand in hand with the inability of the species to find its collective moral compass, and finally the glimpse of hope in a new idiom (complexity theory and informational ontology) that promises to resolve all contradictions in a unified framework subsuming the Self and the Universe, supplying the missing causal connection between the inner and the outer realms.
Glattfelder’s method of exposition is several hundred pages of quotation upon quotation from celebrated thinkers, as if he is on a mission to leave no major figure and philosophical movement untouched in his quest to give a comprehensive overview of western tradition in both its remarkable success and glaring lacunae (and a generous if minor coverage of eastern philosophy, mysticism, psychedelic and parapsychological “out of spacetime” experiences to boot). Insofar as his personal voice does make an appearance, it leaves a marginal impact, like notes of a diligent doctoral student working hard on the literature survey. He gives space to contrarian views when they deviate from the prevailing community consensus, but seldom provides a strong or incisive criticism of his own.
Thus I found ample food for thought there, but it was akin to trailing a museum guide giving a humble and enthusiastic walk through the galleries exhibiting the greatest masters, without any groundbreaking thesis of theirs as an original contribution.
Glattfelder perceives the narrative of humanity as a hero’s epic journey - the hard won accumulation of god like powers over the natural world (the triumph of post Enlightenment materialist-reductionist scientific worldview), the crisis of meaning and spirituality when the initial euphoria fades upon confronting the paradoxes of knowledge (incompleteness theorems and algorithmic undecidability, quantum measurement, elusive reconciliation of GR and QFT, missing science of consciousness) that he sees going hand in hand with the inability of the species to find its collective moral compass, and finally the glimpse of hope in a new idiom (complexity theory and informational ontology) that promises to resolve all contradictions in a unified framework subsuming the Self and the Universe, supplying the missing causal connection between the inner and the outer realms.
Glattfelder’s method of exposition is several hundred pages of quotation upon quotation from celebrated thinkers, as if he is on a mission to leave no major figure and philosophical movement untouched in his quest to give a comprehensive overview of western tradition in both its remarkable success and glaring lacunae (and a generous if minor coverage of eastern philosophy, mysticism, psychedelic and parapsychological “out of spacetime” experiences to boot). Insofar as his personal voice does make an appearance, it leaves a marginal impact, like notes of a diligent doctoral student working hard on the literature survey. He gives space to contrarian views when they deviate from the prevailing community consensus, but seldom provides a strong or incisive criticism of his own.
Thus I found ample food for thought there, but it was akin to trailing a museum guide giving a humble and enthusiastic walk through the galleries exhibiting the greatest masters, without any groundbreaking thesis of theirs as an original contribution.
August 10, 2022
A very good book mostly. In chapters 14, 15 about consciousness, I disagree with some of the assertions and conclusions there. I feel there's a basic misunderstanding there about the concept of Reality and hence also about a most crucial distinction which is required to be made between Reality and the Objective Universe which exists outside and independent of any consciousness and perception.
Reality = Consciousness + Nature/Universe
and NOT
Reality = Nature/Universe, as it is assumed in those chapters.
But even so, also these 2 chapters have lots of enlightening discernments like the entire book. The entire book was a much worthwhile reading for me.
Reality = Consciousness + Nature/Universe
and NOT
Reality = Nature/Universe, as it is assumed in those chapters.
But even so, also these 2 chapters have lots of enlightening discernments like the entire book. The entire book was a much worthwhile reading for me.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews