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If I’m wrong and the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis is false, it means that fundamental physics is doomed to eventually hit a roadblock beyond which we can’t understand our physical reality any better, because it lacks a mathematical description. If I’m right, then there’s no roadblock, and everything is in principle understandable to us. I think that would be wonderful, because then we’ll be limited only by our own imagination.
Figure 13.3: Examples of what could destroy life as we know it or permanently curtail its potential. Whereas our Universe itself will likely last for at least tens of billions of years, our Sun will scorch Earth in about a billion years and then swallow it unless we move it to a safe distance, and our Galaxy will collide with its neighbor in about 3.5 billion years. Although we don’t know exactly when, we can predict with near certainty that long before this, asteroids will pummel us and supervolcanoes will cause yearlong sunless winters. In the immediate term, we may face self-inflicted
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Our fossil record reveals five major extinction events during the last 500 million years, each killing off more than 50% of all animal species. Although the details are actively debated, it’s widely believed that they were all triggered by various astronomical and geological events.
Of all traits that our human form of life has, I feel that consciousness is by far the most remarkable. As far as I’m concerned, it’s how our Universe gets meaning, so if our Universe gets taken over by life that lacks this trait, then it’s meaningless and just a huge waste of space.
I believe that consciousness is the way information feels when being processed. Since matter can be arranged to process information in numerous ways of vastly varying complexity, this implies a rich variety of levels and types of consciousness.
Through us humans and perhaps additional life-forms, our Universe has gained an awareness of itself, and we humans have created the concept of meaning. So in this sense, our Universe doesn’t give life meaning, but life gives our Universe meaning.
