Consciousness is awareness. Computers spawned the new branch of science known as information theory. A key aspect of information theory is, of course, Information. Information is that which reduces uncertainty. Computers manipulate bits of Information to do work, like calculate rocket trajectories. In an effort to replicate human thinking, computer scientists study the manipulation of Information to create artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence appears to resemble human thinking. Some modern scientists have theorized that consciousness is related to Information, and Information organized in a way that is able to do work that resembles thinking can be considered Sentience. This opens the possibility that non-living things can have at least a rudimentary consciousness. A proton may be aware of its “proton-ness.”
Note that the conventional definition of Sentience is the ability to feel sensations. But how do we know if something can feel sensations? We know if the thing responds to a sensory input, like a tap. If we tap a cat, it reacts. In this way we know that the cat feels the tap. If we tap a rock, nothing overt happens, so we conclude that the rock feels nothing. But we do not know what the rock feels from its inside. All we know is that it did not react. The difference between the cat and the rock is the cat has an internal organization that allows it to process the tap and decide on a response, to bite or purr or leap. The rock may sense the tap (e.g., vibration passing through the atoms), but has no way to process the sense and decide on a response. So, the definition we will use here for Sentience (capitalized) is that which is consciously aware and able to process and respond to sensations; the ability to do mental work. It may reflect how well Information is integrated. The cat is Sentient by this definition. The rock’s atoms are defined by Information which may give the rock a rudimentary internal consciousness, but it cannot respond externally. The rock may feel the energy of a tap passing through its atoms, but cannot think or overtly respond, so we say it is not Sentient.
Switching scientific disciplines to physics, physicists define the aspects that make up reality as Information. Spin, charge, and mass/energy are the Information that define particles, and particles make up reality, including people. In collider experiments, physicists can smash particles together and form new particles. But when the spin, charge, and mass/energy of the particles entering and leaving the experiment are examined, they find that the spin, charge, and mass/energy of the entering particles always add up to exactly the same as the particles leaving the experiment. In other words, although the original particles are destroyed, the Information making up the particles is not destroyed, merely transformed into new particles having exactly the same total Information. Information can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed into different combinations. This is a fundamental law of physics. The Information defining that which makes up reality is physical, real, and eternal.
Switching back to computer science, the smallest possible amount of Information is called a bit, that which reduces uncertainty by half. The zero or one state of a binary computer transistor is one bit of Information. Recent experiments in computer science have demonstrated that in a binary computer circuit, there is a small difference in mass between a binary component set to one versus the same component set to zero. In other words, the bit of Information residing in that binary circuit is physical, it is real. Since everything in the universe is defined by the Information it contains, some information scientists theorize that the entire universe is conscious, and if the Information is arranged in a way that it can process the Information to do work, those parts of the universe may even be Sentient. This is known as panpsychism.
If consciousness is related to Information, and Information is physical, and organized Information is Sentience, then consciousness may be eternal. It is possible that consciousness, like the Information defining reality, can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed into different forms. The consciousness we experience as humans may endure beyond the death of the body. Buddhism, Hinduism, and my personal experience say that it does.
We know that the matter-energy universe has evolved over time to become the complex structures of galaxies, suns, planets, and the living things that populate this planet, including people. For some reason, probably because we cannot see it, we have always assumed that space-time is bland and uniform. Space-time is invisible. However, recent scientific experiments have discovered that space-time also has structure. Space-time crystals have been demonstrated. What if space-time evolved over time to become complex structures and even invisible living creatures constructed entirely out of space and time just as the matter and energy of the universe evolved into the living creatures we see around us? Why do we assume space and time are bland and featureless, unlike the matter and energy we can all see?
If Information is consciousness and eternal, and complex, invisible beings made only of time and space are possible, then the existence of immortal, invisible Souls is at least possible. And if everything in the universe is conscious, then there may be one or more Sentient supreme beings. If space-time has structure, there may be heavens and hells invisible to our matter-energy senses. If Souls are made of the same invisible Information and space-time structure as a supreme being, our Souls may be able to become one with our supreme being, just as the Mystics say. That is a lot of “ifs,” and these theories certainly do not prove that our Souls are real, immortal, and can reincarnate and evolve to become one with the universe, but science has uncovered evidence that this view is possible.
(Excerpted from the upcoming book, Western Tantra, The Red Path of Meditation)