Gravity has long been imagined to be related to the emergence of consciousness. One of the most recent appeals to a gravitational influence in conscious thought was championed by Sir Roger Penrose, the famous mathematical physicist, in collaboration with Dr. Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist interested in brain function. The combination of a gravitational selection principle, guiding the protein conformations (the shape of these structures) in the brain's microtubules, together with the world-brane sheet construction, paints a picture of brains in other brane-worlds yielding the power to influence human thought.

Is this not the requirement for a theory of strong 'telepathic' influence, like the weird mind-bending effects reported by scientists studying phenomenology at Utah's Skinwalker Ranch?

I wrote to Dr. Hameroff an inquired if he knew of anyone exploring these possibilities. He replied, "... it is my impression that Penrose believes branes derive from more fundamental spacetime geometry which he is dealing with ... maybe a topic for Quantum Mind 3 in 2007."

If our universe is a brane to brain sandwich, then what are the ultimate implications? Consider the brane world layer. From existing experiments we know that each brane world must be less than one tenth of a millimeter from the next brane as they float in the higher dimensions. Gravity propagates at the speed of light. If the brane-world picture is correct, near the space of our planet a vast section of brane worlds exist.

Somewhere amongst the vast brane-world set, it is likely that a vast, planetary scale super-computing network exists.

As Nick Bostrom, a world-class philosopher at Oxford has pointed out, "Even a single planetary-sized computer, constructed with advanced molecular nanotechnology, could simulate the entire mental history of humankind by using less than one millionth of its computing power for one second; and this presupposes only already known computational mechanisms and engineering principles." This means that the universe might be expected to be populated by countless simulations of reality.

Information about our world travels into the bulk of the brane-worlds in the form of extremely weak gravity waves. However in the Penrose process that was invoked for consciousness selection, the conformation of the brain microtubules is determined by quantum superposition of different spacetime geometries. One would expect that nature makes a choice, and perhaps nature may be biased by brane-worlds coupled to the human brain matter that produces the emergent conscious thought of a living sentient being.

If this were true, then living systems would no longer be limited to the confines of a single universe, along with the computational limits calculated by Seth Lloyd. The ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything may be a lot bigger than was ever thought possible.

Welcome to the 21st century gone wild:

An imaginary but also very real world that exists inside a matrix; a vast living simulated existence, coupled directly into a semantic control network -- a layered net of multiple parallel universes simulating individual perceptions.

And we would not be alone for the ride. The control network is layered, and hierarchical. A certain ultra-terrestrial 'MAJIC' pervades this universe, one of interacting subsystems and emergent self-reflecting features.

There are several different ways of looking at this fundamental scenario.

Although they differ in essential details, they have the same basic simulation argument in common. The primary message that emerges from this line of reasoning is that the human species is not the ultimate arbiter of what happens to planet Earth, or even of human thought. There are other forces moving through the planet determining the fate of our race. They appear to be of such intelligence and act with such powerful anticipatory foresight as to simulate the appearance of working outside of space and
time.

In fact, they appear for all practical purposes to be shaking hands with us from our future.

In exploring the many 'human-centric' simulation options, we find:

Those of a religious basis, forming an hierarchy of heavenly beings, of a non-material nature.

Psychological paraphysical options, with subconscious mental undercurrents clashing amongst various populations and their non-compatible belief systems.

The problem of interference from an advanced civilization, or multiple civilizations with vastly superior mental abilities.

The sub-anthropic idea of Gato-Rivera, that we are a protected species and Earth is a planet owned by a more advanced civilization.

Interference between parallel universes, alternative realities that for some reason have interacted with each other and continue to do so, if intermittently.

Conspiratorial models involving human beings and higher intelligence agents working hand in alien hand to direct human events for unearthly agendas.

So we must ask ourselves once again: Are we living in a simulated world?

Nick Bostrom says a single planetary-sized computer could simulate the entire mental history of humankind by using less than one millionth of its computing power for one second.

MIT Professor Set Lloyd argues that there is no difference between a simulated world in a quantum computer, and the real thing

Copyright (c) 2006 Gary S. Bekkum & Starstream Research. All Rights Reserved.