CRAZY QUESTIONS - WHY NOT?

I dithered a lot over whether to write this in public,the restrictive element coming from my natural social inhibitions.Well then I thought something like,"Ok,go for it.What big do I lose?"

'Bear with me' is my request.Apart from getting bored,the bonus element of being entertained or having some harmless fun is always there-I can assure you this.
Being crazy at times is fun.And so you all will say.After all we need some degree of craziness around us to balance the disciplined sanity with which we all try to go about,living our respective little family lives from one temporal locus to another.

I am going to propose some crazy points today which have dwelled in my mind for quite some time,taking nourishment from personal observation of the way things seem to run around me,both near and remote.

I have been following closely Dr.Kevin Warwick,Professor of Cybernetics,Reading University,and a famous name as a leading creator of Artificial Intelligence.He has created robots which are able to interact with their environment,learn and adjust their 'behaviour' accordingly.These robots exhibit a level of intelligence that matches that of worker-bees.He has also theorised to engineer a new generation of robotic computers that can potentially design and manufacture other robotic computers,each level designing the lesser level beneath it.
Dr.Warwick, in his presentation about his work updates at the Royal Institute in 2001,proposed(not to be nullified)that these robots' intelligence seem to grow in an organic way.They form 'personalities',interact with each other and make choices Beyond what has been programmed into them.
Now think of this.These robots,of course,do not exhibit consciousness with humane characteristics,but neither do,for example,dogs(who can be said to have a 'doggy' consciousness).Let's say these robots have a robotic consciousness.After all,from one angle,robots display a consciousness while computing massively complex mathematical calculations in an instant,a digital consciousness that is superior to our own,at least as far as these calculations are concerned.

Now think of this.Over the last few decades,computers have evolved from being able to simulate basic simplistic patterns to being able to create virtual worker with utmost details.If this trend were to continue,then why can't we imagine computers which will able to simulate worlds perhaps as complicated as the one we think we are living in.THIS raises a philosophical question:Could we ourselves be in such a simulation and could what we think is the universe be some sort of 'vault of heaven' rather than the real thing we perceive and analyse?In a sense,could we ourselves be the creations within that simulation? - This 'question' was proposed by Sir Martin Rees,Britain's Astronomer Royal,in a headline article in THE SUNDAY TIMES in February 2005.
The wider story is that leading astrobiologists are,with every newer discovery in the microcosmic and macrocosmic worlds,becoming increasingly fascinated by the extraordinary degree of fine-tuning that has been necessary for us to evolve.And this is making them question what is Really Real.
Although modern physics has little patience with metaphysics,with what might look like high-minded,recherché abstractions piled up on each other,ancient cosmology seems to be a philosophical machine.In its account of inter-locking evolving dimensions,the clashing,morphing and intermingling of great systems,in its scale,complexity and awesome explanatory power it rivals modern quantum physics.

 

We cannot simply declare that physics has replaced metaphysics and made it practically redundant.There is a key difference between these systemer which shall exist forever.Modern science explains How the universe comes to be as it is.Metaphysics explores the question How Our Experience of the universe comes to be as it is.For science,the great miracle to be explained is the physical universe.For esoteric philosophy,the greater miracle is human consciousness.

Scientists are fascinated by the extraordinary series of balances between various sets of factors that have been necessary in order to make life on earth possible.Grossly speaking,one talks in terms of balances between heat and cold,wetness and dryness,the earth being so far away from the sun(and no farther),the sun being at a particular evolutionary stage(neither hotter or cooler),or at a more fundamental level,the balance between particular degress of forces of gravity and electromagnetism that necessitates the coherence of matter.
From an esoteric perspective,one can begin to note that an equally extraordinary series of balances has been necessary to format our subjective consciousness to be what it is,or speaking simply,to give our experience the Structure it has.

When I meditate on what is needed to make possible the internal narrative,the collection of 'incidents' we string together to form our basic sense of self,I always seem to hit upon one answer-MEMORY.As Italo Calvino has precisely observed:"Memory has to be strong enough to enable us to act without forgetting what we wanted to do,to learn without ceasing to be the same person,but it also has to be weak enough to allow us to keep straying into the future."
We have to be able to perceive our surroundings through our cognitive senses,but it is equally important for us not to be overwhelmed by sensations which could other occupy all our mental space,or else we would not be able to reflect or imagine.Also we seem to have the freedom to choose what to think about.For the necessitation of stable sanity of our consciousness,the Perfect balance of attachment and detachment from our interior impulses as well as from our perceptions of our surroundings,the outside world.

Here I can dare to propose-if the most fundamental states of human consciousness were not characterised by this set of exceptionally fine balances,there would be no possibility to exercise free thought and free will.

Human consciousness seems to be a Miracle.And when I ask about the meaning of life,or the universe,I am not really asking How it came about by the cause-and-effect scheme of things,the right elements and preconditions coming together to form matter-stars,galaxies,planets,organic molecules and life.I am asking about the Intention behind it all.
The 'string theory' promises us to give an answer,a Grand Unified Theory(as Stephen Hawking put it)which will combine laws of gravity with laws of the quantum world.Perhaps one day,man shall be able to relate the reasonable laws that governs objects and phenomena we can sense with the radically 'different' behaviour in the sub-atomic realm.Everything shall be accounted for,because neo-physics seems to propose there is Nothing Else.

When science presents before us,us ourselves and the universe around us as 'meaningful or mysterious,it uses these words with a little intellectual dishonesty.An atheistic universe can only be meaningful or mysterious in a secondary,and rather disappointing,sense-in the same sense as a stage conjuror is a 'magician'. And really,when it comes to considering the Great Questions,of life and death,all scientific equations are little more than difficult,long-winded ways of saying,"We Don't Know."

I really don't know whether I am the creation I think I am,or a 'robotic' creation within a bigger simulated set of conditions,by a higher consciousness.This makes me ask more,to be more crazy in the regulated,sane world.