I’ve been fascinated with the question, “What is reality?” since I was a teenager. I think I missed my calling in life, perhaps I should have been a philosophy major instead of a communications major. But then again, I have such a goofball sense of humor, no one would have taken me seriously — and philosophy seems to be oh so serious. Better to make light of the question while examining it than bog it down and make it dull. But let me break it down to a simple chain of logic based on what we know from science:
Action at a distance, which is the mind-boggling concept that particles get “entangled” and, what you do to one will affect its entangled partner — no matter how far the distance — implies that the two are actually connected even if they’re on the opposite sides of the Universe. How? It would have to be via dimensions we can’t perceive, and what we think of as two entangled particles are actually sections of the same particle. The two are a single object, but we can’t see the whole object because it actually has more than three dimensions. My conclusion: there are definitely more dimensions than what we perceive.
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principal shows us, without any room for doubt, that particles are affected by observation. Matter itself knows when you’re looking at it, and it behaves differently. My conclusion: awareness is built into matter.
These are just two pieces of a vast puzzle, but they’re enough to hint to me (and remember I’m a communications major with a wild imagination, not a scientist) that the Universe is both bigger and more complicated than you’d expect, and it is also self-aware. But not self aware as in how you and I are self aware, but in a bigger, grander, more complex way. But get this: you and I are part of this Universe. We are not separate from it, we are part of it.
We are the Universe and we are aware of ourselves. Hence, even from this perspective, the Universe is in fact aware of itself.
So if the Universe is aware, what is it doing? What is it interested in? If all it does is cosmic navel gazing, what is it watching?
We have strong hints right in front of us. The Universe seems to love beauty. It seems to love conflict. It seems to love drama.
It seems to love a good story.
Look through a powerful telescope and there are stories everywhere. Stories of birth, struggle, death, and rebirth. Stories of power, of gluttony, of conflict, and also harmony and beauty.
Stories of how chaos transforms into order — all by itself.
And all this is at extreme macro levels. Who knows what amazing stories unfold every second at every level in the entire cosmos — just look at all the drama, conflict, and beauty right here on our own little world.
And we see it all, and it interests us — and remember, we are part of the Universe looking at itself. What we see, the Universe sees, and what interests us also interests the Universe.