Why THIS Universe?

"Your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter, be wise."

With this blog, I hope to expand upon things I've written elsewhere, without unnecessarily repeating myself. The questions or topics you find here may fall outside the strict purview of science, but they are a valid part of a larger discussion on the implications of recasting physics into 5 dimensions of experience.

[DISCLAIMER: The thoughts reserved for this blog are those that are the most speculative and philosophical in nature. In order to make analytical or scientific progress, it is often necessary to play with ideas that one ends up rejecting. Don't assume that I'm completely committed to any ideas that you find here. We're trying things on to see what fits.]

I'm prompted to expand the scope of my writing by several 'aaaah-aah' moments that I've had lately. These are moments when I'm forced to either go further into a 5-dimensional model for an explanation, or to retreat and be a good little 4-dimensional girl for awhile. Honestly, sometimes I choose to retreat.

But if I am going to suggest that consciousness can be seen as having a trajectory through what I'm going to call 'the multiverse', then there should be dynamics that explain how I ended up in this universe, confronted by this anomalous synchronicity or event that is catching my attention and/or making me uncomfortable.

[SIDENOTE: I'm not talking about the multiverse in the sense of a set of universes that exist in physical parallel out there; rather, I'm talking about the idea that consciousness is a limited interface with the real, probabilistic, smeared state of the universe. If you review your interpretations of quantum mechanics, you may find ideas that sound similar. My idea goes further... This interface is dynamic, and those dynamics can be analyzed and quantified. (My apologies to those of you who have heard all this before, but I do feel some need to establish a baseline.) I use the multiverse/'pick the universe' analogy because it is easy to understand.]

My background is in cognition and neuroscience, so eventually I hope to be able to model my ideas in terms of cognitive or neurophysiological dynamics. (Then again, I may crack somewhere along the way and abandon science to live in a quasi-religious trance state. I'm just saying...)

The question 'Why this universe?' reflects more than just an ability to identify that what I am faced with is highly improbable according to 4-dimensional dynamics. (People write books about the impact of highly improbable events. I'm actually reading the earlier book 'Fooled By Randomness' at the moment.) It also reflects the desire to understand why I am confronted with something that is uncomfortable. (Happy synchronicities are easier to dismiss or ignore.) If this model is going to work, then the dynamics that underlie the trajectory of conscious experience through the universe of probability must explain why we would be propelled (as it were) to places/events/experiences that are physically or emotionally uncomfortable .

Traditional answers to this question tend to invoke God, karma, and/or the purpose of life. I think it's simpler than that. I think that the ways in which we store and process information correspond to 'forces' that affect our trajectory through the multiverse. (The book(s) 'The Luck Factor' can give you another glimpse into how to think of cognitive events as forces. Read both books with this title if you can get your hands on them.)

Actually, the question 'Why this universe?' is probably better attacked by breaking it down into two related questions - 'Why this event/experience?' and 'Why now?'. A trajectory model should include dynamics that answer both questions. I suspect that the answers to these two questions may be similar in nature, however our experience of the arrow of time is a much stronger illusion from which to break free. (I still toy with the idea that certain multiple-observer interactions may shed light on an underlying construct that yields some absolute form of time. More on that later.)

I'm still going to aim my writing at a general audience. I suffer from the 'big picture' bias as well, in that I like to have a clear structure upon which to hang my details before I get too caught up in minutiae. I ask you to bear with me for awhile longer. These are some of the notes, if you will, from which a future work may or may not be created.