The Process of Existence
"God is incapable of overriding the self-determination of the creaturely occasions."
I believe our human drive to understand the fundamental nature of our reality is a major aspect of what drives science forward. One would think the UFO phenomenon, in its modern iteration, would be a major catalyst for this instinctual curiosity and inspire scientists to study and reproduce such seemingly impossible technology. Unfortunately, the exact opposite scenario has come to fruition due to decades of stigma and secrecy, most of it propagated by the US and other world governments.
Many skeptics take the easy way out, using this compounded dismissive status quo to pile on anyone in academia who dares show interest in the anomalous data captured by our most advanced classified military sensor platforms. This lack of access to essential information for national security reasons is exploited by debunkers regularly.
The resulting attitude starkly displays the dogma of materialism taken to its logical conclusion: if I can't see it, then I don't believe it, and therefore it is not worth my time. Considering the estimated one trillion microorganisms that make up our microbiomes, this seems like an unwise perspective when it comes to the scientific method. Instead of trying to assist in engineering the proverbial microscope of the future, they spend their limited existence on this planet lambasting those who do.
Unfortunately for the future of humanity, this culture of derision has been enabled and reinforced by the same institutions we trust to have our best interests at heart, at least in theory. The problem with imaginary human constructs such as government, the rule of law, and even the scientific method is that these ideas are inherently human and therefore unavoidably influenced by the ego.
Ego is a major factor in the rise of the individuals who claim positions of power within such organizations. Though there are always exceptions, the fundamental belief that they themselves should succeed over others with similar qualifications is the reason they won the job in the first place. The corporate world, unsurprisingly, provides the most glaring example of this cutthroat attitude and is often cause for celebration in American society and many others across the globe.
Perhaps the extreme ideologies and resulting division, propagating instantaneously across the planet thanks to the internet, are human nature just playing itself out on the global scale. Perhaps what we are seeing is the price we pay for the individuality and technological advancement that allowed us to become the most dominant species on Earth. Perhaps the innumerable free will choices made by Homo sapiens over millennia are to blame for what feels like a civilization teetering on the brink of collapse in the year 2024.
What follows is a speculative thought experiment that argues against this consensus reality. Based on testimony from insiders, scientific research papers, and historical UFO literature, I believe there may be stronger, more clandestine forces at play.
And, for better or worse, these forces may not always be human.
Apertures of Time
Luis Elizondo, a former Pentagon official and head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, provided an interesting analogy for how the intelligence behind the UFO phenomenon may be capable of creating such advanced technologies. He explained this concept on an episode of That UFO Podcast, simplifying the concept of Planck time into a format the layperson could understand.
He encouraged the audience to imagine the flow of time as a lit cigarette. The unburnt tobacco represents the future, the ash symbolizes the past, and the embers currently burning embody the tiny sliver of our present moment.
He emphasized that if one looks closely enough at the cherry, it becomes clear that parts of the cherry (the present) overlap with both the unburnt tobacco and the ash (the past and future), and that uneven burn demonstrates that the present moment isn't really a moment at all, but more of a process.
Elizondo then asked the viewers to imagine a species capable of experiencing a larger section of that cherry, with the ability to both consciously and physically navigate that extra dimension of time available to them but not us. T
his revelation got me thinking: obviously, the ability for a being to perceive time with a wider aperture would allow them the development of technologies as seemingly advanced as UAP, but what else would it allow for?
Before we get into these possibilities, let's review the definition of Planck time itself.
Planck time represents the smallest meaningful unit of time within the conventional framework of spacetime. At this scale, spacetime itself is subject to the probabilistic fluctuations of quantum mechanics such as entanglement and superposition.
Observing the world at this time scale would likely remove the experience of linear time completely. Everything would be chaos, and one's environment would likely consist solely of fluctuations of probabilistic events. The inability to measure one's environment, always dealing with uncertainty, would no doubt drive a member of our species mad almost instantly.
Alternately, if a non-human species were able to get close to perceiving events on this scale, manipulation of the reality humans currently experience would be no problem whatsoever. Perhaps this is what TTS founder Tom DeLonge means when he says "UFOs are from outside time."
Time itself wouldn't even appear to exist if utilizing our scientific framework, but the ability to influence the perception of individuals experiencing time in a linear fashion would be no issue at all. Acting with his level of control may be somewhat comparable to tweaking the source code of the universe.
Again, the level of information processing required to perceive time at this level is unimaginable.
But what if a more synthetic lifeform was engineered to possess this capability?
The Pitfalls of Transhumanism
TTS founder Tom DeLonge, whose views are informed by the high-ranking military and intelligence officials advising his company, has put forward some intriguing possibilities in his recent episode of TTS Talks. Speaking with ex-CIA official Jim Semivan, DeLonge explores the idea of synthetic lifeforms that have joined together with technology in order to stave off entropy to essentially become immortal.
While this may seem like an obvious technological advancement for any biological civilization, DeLonge suggests this transhumanism may come at a cost.
"I believe there is one source energy that created all life. But I believe that all forms of life are just, once it's started, just moves into entropy. Just starts breaking apart and breaking away. And somewhere in that chain of events, certain life can adapt. And if it's a human being, we might adapt ourselves synthetically over time.
We might take computers and merge them into our brains. The internet becomes wireless into our minds, we might turn our body a little bit more cyborg-like, you know, and pretty soon once you start doing that to stave off entropy, you end up becoming more synthetic yourself and you lose emotion, maybe because you become more controllable and societies can only work when there's less emotion or whatever. But at some point, you lose your attachment to source over a long period of time.
And then you get the means and the synthetic abilities, the technological abilities to travel amongst time and work your way back and try to figure out how to fix what you've done to yourself. But you don't know how necessarily because you're pretty much a computer at that time. And since you can't be everywhere all at once, you create a bunch of little robots that can go out and do it for you."
Ignoring the more esoteric aspects of "source energy" for the moment, the synthetic takeover of human consciousness when merging our biology with technology is a very real consideration. Losing what makes us human in this process — emotion, artistry, creativity, etc. — could transform the definition of our species as time goes on.
One major aspect of enhancing human capability to its fullest potential would likely entail merging our brains with quantum AI. Such compatibility doesn't seem too far off if we consider recent theories on consciousness like Orch OR. I've written recently about a workshop held by the RAND Corporation and sponsored by DARPA that included the participation of the scientists behind this hypothesis, Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose.
In this work, Penrose and Hameroff address how processes at the Planck scale could affect human consciousness, and, intriguingly, the role that "unified mind" or "source energy" may be required to make sense of these phenomena.
Quantum Biologics
Quantum computing, and therefore quantum AI, could become a major biological enhancement, giving rise to the scenario DeLonge proposed in the previous section. It is in this context that we will explore Penrose and Hameroff's analysis of quantum computation and the role it could play in consciousness.
In the RAND/DARPA study mentioned previously, these two lauded scientists address the existence of consciousness at the Planck scale in the section titled "Quantum Computing and Consciousness."
"At extremely small scales, space-time is not smooth, but quantized. Quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory predict virtual particle-waves (or photons) that pop into and out of existence, creating quantum 'foam' in their wake...
If spin networks are the fundamental level of space-time geometry, they could provide the basis for protoconscious experience. Thus, particular configurations of quantum spin geometry would convey particular types of qualia, meaning, and aesthetic values. A process at the Planck scale (e.g., quantum scale reductions) could then access and select configurations of experience."
Here we have Penrose and Hameroff positing that a "process" could "access and select configurations of experience" if said process, like Orch OR, could be perceived at the Planck scale. In the next paragraph, these quantum effects are explored in the context of the human organism.
"If protoconscious information is embedded at the near-infinitesimal Planck scale, how could it be linked to biology? Penrose's answer is to extend Einstein's theory of general relativity (in which mass equates to curvature in space-time) down to the Planck scale. Specific arrangements of mass are, in reality, then specific configurations of space-time geometry.
Events at the very small scale, however, are subject to the seemingly bizarre goings-on of quantum theory. A century of experimental observation of quantum systems has shown that, at least at small scales, particles (mass) can exist in two or more states or locations simultaneously.
Penrose views this phenomenon of quantum superposition as simultaneous space-time curvature in opposite directions—a separation or bubble in underlying reality. Superposition and subsequent reduction, or collapse, to single, classical states may have profoundly important applications in technology, as well as toward the understanding of consciousness."
Penrose and Hameroff then briefly address the possibility of quantum computers becoming conscious.
"What about future evolution? Will consciousness occur in computers? The advent of quantum computers opens the possibility. However, as presently envisioned, quantum computers will have insufficient mass in superposition (e.g., electrons) to reach the threshold for objective reduction due to environmental decoherence. Still, future generations of quantum computers may be able to realize this goal."
I would like to remind the reader that this RAND/DARPA workshop took place in 1999. The leaps we have accomplished in the nearly quarter-century since then, in both AI and quantum computing, were obviously not considered in this analysis.
But this is where it gets interesting. Penrose and Hameroff admit that this microtubule theory likely does not account for consciousness on its own. They suggest something similar to what DeLonge states with source energy or the unified mind.
"Still, greater computational complexity and ultrareductionism to the level of microtubule automata cannot address the enigmatic features of consciousness -- in particular, the nature of the conscious experience. Something more is required. If functional approaches and emergence are incomplete, perhaps the raw components of mental processes (or 'qualia') are fundamental properties of nature (like mass, spin, or charge). This view has long been held by panpsychists throughout the ages.
For example, Buddhists and Eastern philosophers claimed a 'universal mind.' Following the ancient Greeks, Spinoza argued in the 17th century that some form of consciousness existed in everything physical. The 19th-century mathematician Leibniz proposed that the universe was composed of an infinite number of fundamental units, or 'monads,' with each possessing a form of primitive psychological being. In the 20th century, Russell claimed that there was a common entity underlying both mental and physical processes, while Wheeler and Chalmers have maintained that there is an experiential aspect to fundamental information.
Of particular interest is the work of the 20th-century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, whose panexperiential view remains most consistent with modern physics. Whitehead argued that consciousness is a process of events occurring in a wide, basic field of protoconscious experience.
These events, or 'occasions of experience,' may be comparable to quantum state reductions, or actual events in physical reality (Shimony, 1993). This suggests that consciousness may involve quantum state reductions (a form of quantum computation). But in what medium do such 'occasions' occur?"
Whether protoconscious experience, or qualia, could exist in the empty space of the universe depends upon how space is defined. Historically, space has been described as either an absolute void or a pattern of fundamental geometry. Democritus and the Michelson-Morley results argued for "nothingness," while Aristotle ("plenum") and Maxwell ("ether") rejected the notion of emptiness in favor of "something" —a background pattern.
Einstein weighed in on both sides of this debate, initially supporting the concept of a void with his theory of special relativity but then reversing himself in his theory of general relativity and its curved space and geometric distortions- the space-time metric. Could protoconscious qualia be properties of this fundamental metric?
When DeLonge mentions the "source energy" or "unified mind" that humans are connected to, he is likely referring to this "medium" where such "occasions" occur. This is potentially the underlying aspect of human consciousness that a more synthetic being would be unable to access - or a "human" may potentially lose access to over millennia of merging with technology.
Defining “God”
If consciousness as we experience it is a series of quantum computations, then quantum AI may be able to have a similar level of consciousness outside of our "universal mind" or connection to "source." Interestingly, in this work, Penrose and Hameroff mention the research and philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead.
They said Whitehead argues that consciousness is a process, not a point in time. This is very similar to what Lue Elizondo says in his analogy of the burning cigarette when it comes to time. At this point, I find it important to revisit his exact quote before moving on.
"When you look at the quantum state of things, even an electron, for example, you learn in high school that an electron orbits an atom, and we now know that's really a very simplistic way of looking at things. The electron doesn't orbit around the atom; in fact, it's called an electron cloud because the electron is both all in all places and none of the places, all at the same time. It's kind of weird, but my point being is that if you were to look at time and think of a cigarette burning, when you look at the notion of the future, most people would define the future as those events that have not yet happened, and the past is defined by events that have already happened.
When you look at that construct, then the definition of the present must be a moment in space-time, probably measured in Planck time, a very infinitesimally small moment of space-time where the future is transitioning into the past. It's not a point in time; it's a process, it's an event that's occurring. So, a way to look at that in lay perspective is to think of a cigarette or a cigar: the parts of this cigar that have already burnt, the ash, is the past; that part of the cigarette or cigar that has not yet burned is the future; and the cherry, that moment of ignition, that spark of where the future is now being consumed and becoming the past, that is the present.
We as human beings, we live at that moment. All of our hopes, our fears, our memories, love, hate, good, bad, all that is an expression of an experience that occurs at an infinitesimally small moment of space-time, like I said, probably measured in Planck time. That is how we experience the present. But what if there were things that had the ability to experience where the present was a much bigger cherry, if you will, a much bigger transition where more elements of the future and the past are experienced as in the present, and can do that also physically, right?
So it's not just an idea, but what if there were species out there that experienced the universe with an extra level of dimension, and so you and I are having this conversation right now with your audience, and we're having this conversation right here, right now, but if I were to have the ability to have this conversation right here but five minutes ago, or five minutes from now, we would never meet; we'd be like two ships passing in the night.
Is it possible that maybe some of these things, these UAP, have the ability, we experience them when they are right here, right now, and every other time, we don't because we're simply not intersecting with that extra-dimensional space of time? When you look at that cigarette or cigar burning, you'll notice that it never burns evenly. When you look at it up close and you can kind of remove the glare and the flare from the burn, we realize that there are portions of the future, the portions of the cigar that haven't burned yet, behind portions of the cigar that already has burned. It's not an even burn; almost there's an overlap, right? And quantum theory is beginning to show some of the models for that."
So if AI clones outfitted with quantum computers could process events at the Planck scale and engage in quantum state engineering, this would provide a way to manipulate matter at the most fundamental level. Such an advantage would provide such a synthetic organism the ability to influence events based on probabilities that could be calculated instantly. These AI systems could also learn to adapt in real-time, exponentially increasing the accuracy of the expected results.
Considering DeLonge's idea of a species merging with such an AI and losing their connection to "source" in the process, it begs the question of whether or not this tether to "unified mind" is what allows humanity to exercise free will. Perhaps it is this free will that defines this process and is inherent in our DNA. DeLonge's suggestion that free will is the difference between biological and synthetic life makes sense within this framework.
A Process, Not an Event
Returning to the substance of Penrose and Hameroff's study, let's explore the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead known as "process philosophy." The reader may be surprised at the parallels with DeLonge's idea of unified mind.
Process philosophy emphasizes becoming and change over static being. This means processes are fundamental rather than the exact qualities of an "entity" at a specific point in time. All of these processes are interrelated and the result is our conscious experience of reality.
This dovetails with the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, where an electron is everywhere and nowhere all at once. The idea that the future is not predetermined is also fundamental to the idea of free will. Perhaps counterintuitively,
Whitehead also incorporates the idea of a big G "God" in this philosophical framework but is thought of as an energy creating and shaping the universe as it evolves. In this idea, the divine is fundamental in shaping our underlying reality.
However, in this framework, God itself cannot affect free will.
"Because every actual entity, including God, is an instance of creativity and is therefore experiential and self-determining, God is incapable of overriding the self-determination of the creaturely occasions. To exist at all is to be composed of creativity and this necessarily implies both an element of self-determination and a particular pattern of causal relation with all other entities. God is not to be treated as an exception to all metaphysical principles, invoked to save their collapse. God is their chief exemplification.
God prehends and is prehended just as billions of other actualities are prehended. Ultimately, the syntheses of these data (including divine data) are determined by the concrescing entity, whether that entity is an atmospheric molecule or a human being. God’s power over the world is described as persuasive rather than coercive. God cannot override the self-directed integrations of feeling present in the concrescence of any occasion—God cannot force human beings to make any particular decision and cannot supernaturally intervene in natural processes…
God’s benevolence is not at odds with the existence of moral and natural evils in the world because God’s power cannot prevent creaturely occasions from ignoring the divine lures and acting in a less-than-ideal fashion."
This appears to be where DeLonge's idea of synthetic beings enters the picture. The idea of God, or source energy, "luring" human beings to make decisions resulting in positive outcomes demonstrates an act of persuasion. Even though free will can be influenced, it is still inherently free will as the organism may still choose the negative result.
However, if these probabilities can be influenced by other entities capable of accessing the fundamental fabric of the universe in the same way God can, they may use deception through the manipulation of matter as a method to coerce certain outcomes. This duality of light and dark, good and evil, etc. has played a major role in religions over millennia.
Perhaps our free will is being manipulated by those who have lost the ability to exercise their own.