Human Choice and Information

Secondly though, it also means that what we do, as humans, is also part of the design and path laid out for Q4P in its endless drive to E+. In short, what we do as people effects the universe itself.

Human Choice and Information

So here is the most interesting part of Birnbaum’s inclusion of organic life in the universal supercomputer. You may question, how does human thought affect the physical universe? If you think of kittens, how does that affect the universe?

Here is a clearer way to look at this. Consider if you saw a beggar on the street. You may feel empathy towards him or her and stop and give them some money. For you, that is not some Darwinian survival instinct. In fact, it is quite the opposite. You have done something that not only does not benefit you or your own possible children/family line. You have instead made yourself slightly poorer. What you have done is display something human’s call altruism.

Now suppose that person would have died of cold, but you gave them just what they needed to get shelter for a cold night that was settling in. What if that person, now given a bit of extra time, gets their life back in order, gets off the street and marries? They settle down and one day one of their 257

grandchildren goes on to cure cancer or helps design the first human colony on another planet.

All physical action humans take may affect the universe in profound ways we cannot expect or predict. Some do and some don’t. But we cannot predict which will. The interesting thing is when you add humans into the mix. Firstly, we are amazingly good at affecting the environment around us, reshaping it to our needs and purpose.

Yet, as the illustration above shows, many of our actions are committed for reasons based solely on our higher, emotional and morale responses. This being the case, humans add something to the informational universe, while driven by thought the results are very real.

This is why Birnbaum calls humanity the pinnacle of life that we know of, because we not only have a unique effect on the universe around us, but we also haver unique drives that make us do many of those things.

So, why is humanity different and what is our purpose, if anything? The answer, to Birnbaum, is quite simple. We are the next evolution of Q4P to increase the power of the universal supercomputer. We are akin to adding a faster, more powerful, and complex CPU to a computer. We solve problems the universe could not before our appearance. As has always been 258

the case, when the universe finds itself reaching the limits of its complexity, a Complexification event occurs and the universe itself finds or creates a more complex way of doing things.

Humankind is just as an important transition in the universe as when the first atoms came together to form a molecule. So, Lloyd provided a helpful physics view of universe which acknowledged the endless higher degrees of complexity which actually occur. But Lloyd's physics weren’t enough to pull him over the finish line of full understanding.

It would require Birnbaum’s fuller metaphysics to fill in the holes in the picture. So, is the world itself a giant quantum computer? Certainly. Does it have meaning? Yes. When you change the name from universal quantum supercomputer to universal organic quantum supercomputer all the pieces fall into place.

Per Birnbaum,” our universe is a self-advancing, self-igniting, self-iterating, self-building-out and self-propelling [universe].” Birnbaum's Quantum-Potential-Organism, this supercomputer, is not only an integral part of the universe itself, but also cements humanity’s need to exist. This supercomputer is at the same time a star nursery and a life creator, an element generator and a cosmic voyager.

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Birnbaum’s overarching point is that you cannot speak of the universe as if it is something external to human existence. We are not just a part of this organic supercomputer. It is far more than that. Since we are the results of Complexification, we are actually necessary parts.

Birnbaum also takes care to point out that while we are a part of the cosmic organic supercomputer, we are not just cogs in a machine. Every individual matters. The choices we make matter. The fact that we have the intellect, desires and opinions to make choices matter. These are all expressions of Q4P driving us towards Extraordinariation. So, what we do is necessary for the universe to proceed on its way towards E+.

Birnbaum calls our universe the “original/primordial A.I. (artificial intelligence) … a quantum computer integrated into an organic overlay.” Just as it designed thew stars in its ongoing effort to calculate, define and reach Extraordinariation, so did it create humanity to continue on its quest.

Sadly, physics will never be able to understand or describe this true nature of the cosmos with its purely quantitative approach. As said before, only metaphysics has the tools necessary to understand the qualitative aspects of the universe and how they guide the whole organic supercomputer in its work.

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