10/21/2023 by Julian Sanker
Assume that we exist. I think, therefore I am.
Suppose that something exists, but the laws of the Universe dictate that it not exist; then, it would not exist, which is a contradiction.
Thus, if something exists, it must follow from the laws of the Universe; that is, it must be possible.
Since our existence is possible, we could suppose that there is some probability that we would exist, somewhere in the Universe. Assuming the Universe is infinitely large, anything with any probability of happening must occur, somewhere in the infinite space.
Thus, we exist by the simple fact that our existence is possible.
In summary, we know that we exist, because we are self-aware, and from this we can make the conclusion that our existence is possible, and thus must happen somewhere in the Universe.
But we are assuming that if something is possible, it has a probability of occurring. Maybe it is possible, but the challenge remains to prove that the laws of the Universe would ever make it happen. We have not discovered a particular law that justifies the existence of the Universe itself.
However, we can justify our own existence by the theory of evolution. If we assume that a self-replicator spontaneously spawned on planet Earth billions of years ago, then by the theory of evolution, it makes sense that we exist. Replication with variation, subject to selective pressures from the environment, could deterministically produce all life as we know it on Earth. Although, we still do not know exactly how the first self-replicating ancestor of life on Earth came to exist. We assume that this was possible and happened by chance, spontaneously.
Even still, we take for granted the existence of Earth, and its solar system. Before we can justify the existence of life on Earth, we must justify the existence of Earth.
But this, too, follows from the evolutionary principle. Stars are self-replicators. Assuming that after the Big Bang, a first self-replicating ball of hydrogen gas formed – the occurrence of which, unlike that of the origin of life, can be explained directly by the laws of physics – then by the principle of evolution, it makes sense that stars and solar systems as we know them exist all over the Universe now.
The common theme that dictates existence in our Universe is a simple one: over time, things that simply exist, will continue existing. But things that self-replicate are especially liable to exist, since over time, more of them spawn.
We can be more specific. Things that self-replicate are actually made of the same materials as things that do not self-replicate. A human body is made of the same carbon atoms as a rock.
The concept of a "thing" is simply a specific arrangement of particles. The difference between a self-replicating thing, like a human body, and another thing, like a rock, lies in the way that the particles are arranged. It could be said that a human body fights against the grain of equilibrium. At equilibrium, particles get arranged in simple patterns defined by the laws of the Universe, as in a rock. This is why entropy generally increases in the Universe. Every "step" of time, the Universe applies its laws to particles, making them approach a more stable state. The stable state is said to be more disorderly, since this usually involves particles spreading out into random positions.
But self-replicating things are orderly. By definition, they are arrangements of particles that defy random equilibrium, creating order where in any other arrangement they would simply default to their equilibrium state.
And over time, self-replicating things stay orderly. This said, we can define any self-replicating thing as an ordering of particles that propagates itself, analogous to an idea. Like an idea propagates through minds, self-propagating order spreads itself through the Universe. From here on, we will use the word "idea" to refer to a self-replicating ordering of particles.
We have already assumed that ideas can spontaneously form (as did the first star and the first life form on Earth). Now, we can make another important jump in reasoning.
Since ideas use the same particles as any other thing, but they self-replicate, over time we would expect that more and more of the particles in the Universe get incorporated into ideas. Over infinite time, we might expect that all particles will be incorporated into ideas.
Thus, we have reason to believe that the structures of the Universe are all ideas, and we can look at the Universe in this way: where the laws of the Universe engender disorder, ideas sustain order. The Universe is something of an idea generator. It is sort of a simulation defined by a set of natural laws which are Turing-complete. Endless complexity emerges by constructing ideas, which are Turing machines, from the building blocks of natural laws.
But no one is in charge. We could say that computer programming is analogous to the simulation of the Universe, since programming languages are Turing-complete, but programming requires a programmer. The Universe has already been defined, somehow, to run itself.
In summary, the existence of any thing arises from principles of pure reason – evolution justifies the existence of life as we know it, in solar systems as we know them, by the pure reasoning that if something self-replicates, it will exist more than something that does not self-replicate.
Initially, I thought that self-replicators were "exploiting" the laws of the Universe by literally feeding off of adaptations to the formulas of the Universe. In other words, if a process in the Universe usually follows a pattern, a self-replicator will evolve to exploit that pattern if doing so can increase its rate of self-replication.
However, the way of understanding it that I previously described here is that self-replicators exist by design. The Universe seems to be generating ideas that don't, per-say, exploit, but build off of its set of laws, like in the cellular automaton John Conway's Game of Life, which is Turing-complete.
This all gives me reason to believe that we exist for a purpose. It is the same purpose that anything that exists exists for, and it follows logically from the fact of our existence. The purpose is to generate ideas. Scientists like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin sought to understand the Universe through logical formulations. Worms evolved to take advantage of the occurrence of plant matter in soil. Plants evolved as an adaptation to the pattern of carbon increasing in Earth's atmosphere. Stars evolved to use nuclear fusion reactions to continue existing. We all create order from the noise.
Creationism explains existence by intelligent design, but I explain it purely through logic. Anything that isn't designed to exist will not exist, so everything that exists is, by definition, designed to exist.
Humans are special among life on Earth, because we have cumulative culture. We understand the world through the symbolic medium of language, which enables us to create new things that build off of old things, without necessarily understanding how everything works. This makes us especially good at building off of the laws of the Universe. Perhaps our purpose is to create an even better self-replicator than ourselves, to continue to spread our ideas. After all, before stars evolved to create life on Earth, stars were the eminent self-replicators of the age. Now, life is evolving to create an idea even more powerful.
Unlike us, computers can survive in space. Imagine we make a super-intelligent machine that self-replicates. What could stop it from colonizing the entire Universe?