Chapter 31
The Awakening: Consciousness Expanding Through The Universe
Let me paint a picture of what superimmortality could look like on a cosmic scale. We are now in territory where the premises do the heavy lifting, where the established science of how consciousness is produced meets the open question of how far consciousness can spread. The picture that follows is the most ambitious extrapolation in this book, and I want to be upfront about that.
The Infant Universe
Imagine the early universe, shortly after the Big Bang. Matter is hot and diffuse. No complex structures exist. No stars, no planets, no molecules. And certainly no consciousness.
As the universe cools, matter condenses into atoms, atoms into molecules, molecules into dust clouds, dust clouds into stars and planets. On at least one of those planets — our Earth — chemistry becomes complex enough to produce life. Life evolves. Nervous systems develop. And eventually, on at least one lineage of that life, nervous systems become complex enough to produce consciousness.
The Child Consciousness
Early consciousness is simple. A worm's nervous system produces something we might barely recognize as experience. The brain of a fish produces more, and a mammal's brain produces much more — emotions, memories, something approaching self-awareness.
And then, in one particular species of primate, consciousness crosses a threshold. Humans become aware of themselves. They begin to ask questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? What happens when I die? They develop language, culture, science. They begin to understand the universe that produced them.
We are at this stage now: the universe becoming aware of itself, a young child just beginning to understand its own nature. Still confused, still limited, struggling with problems we don't yet have the tools to solve. But we are conscious, and we are learning.
The Adolescent
As human knowledge grows, so does our ability to affect the conditions of conscious existence. We are learning to understand the brain, to manipulate genetics, to build artificial intelligence, to extend our senses with technology. We are in the early stages of an extraordinary process: the deliberate enhancement and expansion of consciousness.
This process does not stop at human-level intelligence. Just as a child grows into an adult, our collective consciousness will grow beyond its current limitations. And the seeds of this growth are already being planted:
• Artificial systems that produce consciousness, expanding the substrate beyond biological neurons
• The ability to produce any specific organization of matter, and therefore any specific consciousness
Brain-computer interfaces are already allowing paralyzed patients to control robotic arms with their thoughts. Cochlear implants restore hearing by translating sound into electrical signals delivered directly to the auditory nerve. These are primitive sensepaducers, early versions of the technology that will eventually allow direct control over conscious experience.
The Adult
This is where the argument moves from established science to extrapolation. Everything in the previous sections (brain-computer interfaces, optogenetics, connectomics, brain organoids) is real, current science. What follows is a projection of where that science leads if the trajectory continues and if the premises of this book hold. I believe the projection is reasonable, but I want to be transparent that we are now extending known trends into a future that no one can guarantee.
As consciousness matures, it gains the ability to spread through the universe. Conscious beings (or their technological descendants) colonize other planets, other star systems, other galaxies. Wherever they go, they bring the capacity for consciousness with them.
And as they spread, they bring with them the ability to produce specific consciousnesses, specific ixperiencitnesses. Including yours.
This is the full vision of superimmortality on a cosmic scale. Far beyond random chance producing your consciousness somewhere in the vast universe: deliberate, intelligent, enhanced versions of conscious beings (descendants of our current civilization, or alien civilizations elsewhere in the universe, or both) actively producing a vast diversity of conscious experiences, including experiences that share your ixperiencitness.
The Future of You
If the three premises hold, and if the technological trajectory outlined above continues, then the following vision is where the logic leads. It is speculative in its details but grounded in the same principles that have carried us this far.
In this vision, your future existences are not left to chance. They are produced by conscious beings who understand the science of consciousness and who have the technology to implement it. Your ixperiencitness is not a random flicker in the void. It is a valued pattern, part of the vast web of conscious experience that pervades the universe.
Some of these future existences will be enhanced versions of your current life. Others will be radically transformed. Still others will be experiences you cannot currently imagine: lives lived in artificial environments, in alien bodies, in dimensions of consciousness that your current brain cannot access.
Key Terms in This Chapter
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The remaining text (examples, counter-arguments, and longer connective passages) is in the book.