Anticipation of Judicial Inquisition of Humans by Extraterrestrials (Part #6)
Extraterrestrial inquisition of humans as panpsychism in practice
The anticipation of some form of judicial inquiry into human activity by extraterrestrials, according to universal principles, is necessarily speculative. The existence of extraterrestrials continues to be a matter of controversy, irrespective of what is produced as evidence and the hypotheses in that regard.
There is of course an argument that, as imagined, extraterrestrials are entirely "anthropogenic" -- together with the judgement any contact might then imply. This perspective can be associated with the manner whereby multitudes of "aliens" are now engendered by psychosocial processes of "alienation". Ironically they effectively become "terrestrial extras". In the terminology of drama extras are performers who appear in a nonspeaking, nonsinging, or nondancing capacity, usually in the background. The nature of their "judgement" has yet to become apparent.
Panpsychism: The speculative argument acquires a greater degree of credibility in the light of the articulation of panpsychism in its various forms by a surprisingly extensive range of thinkers over a long period. According to this understanding, mind or a mind-like aspect is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality. It is also described as a theory that "the mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throughout the universe". It is one of the oldest philosophical theories, and has been ascribed to philosophers including Thales, Plato, Spinoza, Leibniz, William James, Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell, and Galen Strawson.
It is however intriguing to note that relatively little is said about the existence of extraterrestrials in relation to panpsychism. The explanations of panpsychism tend to be very general in their arguments to the point that the reality of extraterrestrials would be a mere detail that in no way conflicted with the principles it explores. The existence of intelligent aliens would merely serve to confirm that understanding.
The speculative argument above does however suggest one possibility for the interaction between species throughout the universe. This does not evoke the manner in which it might apply to non-biological forms of life -- as the less restrictive forms of panpsychism envisage. Most obviously missing from the argument focusing on "animals" is how it might be extended to "plants" and other forms of life -- and how this might affect the composition of an ET inquisition of humans, especially given the massive destruction of plants on Earth by humans.
Quantum mind: Panpsychism is a philosophy appreciated primarily for its elegance, and readily ignored for that reason. Emerging interest in quantum mind and the challenges of quantum mechanics suggest the possibility of a credible underpinning for the philosophy from a natural science perspective, as variously explored:
- David Skrbina: Panpsychism in the West (Quantum Mind, 2013)
- Jed Stamas: The Quantum Mind: panpsychism, physics, and consciousness (SlideShare, 2010)
- Chris H Hardy: Nononlocal Consciousness in the Universe: panpsychism, psi and mind over matter in hyperdimensional physics (Journal of Nonlocality, 5, 2017, 1)
- Harald Atmanspacher: Quantum Approaches to Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2020)
- Philip Goff: Panpsychism is crazy, but it’s also most probably true (Aeon, 1 March 2017)
- Carlos Eduardo Maldonado: Quantum Physics and Consciousness: a (strong) defense of panpsychism (SciELO, November 2018)
Of particular value in clarifying the possibility is the detailed argument of Alexander Wendt (Quantum Mind and Social Science: unifying physical and social ontology, 2015). This suggests that there may indeed be possibilities of engaging "otherwise" with "otherness" -- if only in the future (Encountering Otherness as a Waveform -- in the light of a wave theory of being, 2013).
The most recent thinking in this regard from the perspective argues that neither individuals nor the surrounding world are real, as summarized by Paul Ratner:
The scientists link their hypothesis to panpsychism, which sees everything as thought or consciousness. The authors think that their "panpsychic self-simulation model" can even explain the origin of an overarching panconsciousness at the foundational level of the simulations, which "self-actualizes itself in a strange loop via self-simulation". This panconsciousness also has free will and its various nested levels essentially have the ability to select what code to actualize, while making syntax choices. The goal of this consciousness? To generate meaning or information. (New Hypothesis Argues the Universe Simulates itself into Existence, Big Think, 26 April, 2020
Specifically, the paper in question from the Quantum Gravity Research institute argues:
We modify the simulation hypothesis to a self-simulation hypothesis, where the physical universe, as a strange loop, is a mental self-simulation that might exist as one of a broad class of possible code theoretic quantum gravity models of reality obeying the principle of efficient language axiom. This leads to ontological interpretations about quantum mechanics. We also discuss some implications of the self-simulation hypothesis such as an informational arrow of time. (Klee Irwin, Marcelo Amaral and David Chester (The Self-Simulation Hypothesis Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Entropy, 22, 2020, 2)
Epiterrestrial vs Extraterrestrial? Any emphasis on a wave-based comprehension of the existence of extraterrestrials helps to frame the quite distinct possibility that ETs have already established contact with humanity to the point of coexisting with humans on Earth. This is of course one focus of popular speculation. However the manner of this coexistence invites quite distinct consideration, as explored separately (Sensing Epiterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): embedding of "extraterrestrials" in episystemic dynamics? 2013). This included the following sections:
Possibilities of this kind offer the sense in which the wave functions of species over which humans claim dominance may be associated in unexpected ways with the manifestion of those species elsewhere -- associated there, however, with wave functions by which they are dominant with respect to humans.
Somewhat ironically with respect to any judicial inquistion by extraterrestrials, the species on Earth over which humans claim dominance could then be understood as "putting humans to the question" on behalf of ETs, thereby reversing the dubious tradition of the torturers of the Spanish Inquisition and their modern counterparts. The "question" is then in the eyes of the animals being tested -- or otherwise deliberately maltreated.
Correspondence of the dimension of dignity-dukkha with profit-loss?
Profit: The human preoccupation with the dimension of profit-versus-loss has engendered widespread familiarity with its significance in economic and financial terms, especially in the West. However there is every possibility that the future may understand this to be only a specific instance of a more general phenomenon -- already suggested by a degree of preoccupation with positive-versus-negative.
It could be usefully assumed that ETs would already have clarified this understanding to include qualitative considerations. The correspondence with dignity-versus-dukkha might then prove to be another instance, but potentially more fundamental than profit-versus-loss. The extent to which financial "loss" is experienced and described in terms of "pain" is suggestive in this respect.
Karma: It is of course the case that for many humans the qualitative sense is evident to an extensive degree in the Eastern understanding of karma as a spiritual principle of cause and effect. The intent and actions of an individual (cause) are then understood to influence the future of that individual (effect). The philosophy of karma is closely associated with the idea of rebirth in many Eastern religions -- and especially with the form and quality of any such reincarnation.
There is of course much popular speculation as to how karma works, expressed most succinctly in the form of "what goes around, comes around" or "as you sow, so shall you reap", as for example:
- Judith Johnson: What Is Karma and How Does it Work? (HuffPost, 26 May 2012)
- Dave Roos: How Does Karma Really Work? (HowStuffWorks, 1 April 2019)
The speculative argument above offers indications as to how karma might "work" in a panpsychic universe -- notably one populated by extraterrestrials mindfully embodying the process of its operation.
The human understanding of karma focuses on reincarnation on Earth, possibly in some other form. This may be associated with intuitions regarding a variety of appropriate "realms" -- "heavens" and "hells". With the increasing acknowledgement of the multidimensionality of the universe and of reality, these intuitions could be recognized as characteristic of reincarnation into forms in other locations -- potentially indicated by the constellations with which the ETs may be variously associated.
Merit: Less evident from that argument is the only too problematic consequence of the human focus on the accumulation of "profit" -- given any implied correspondence with an accumulation of "dignity". This is recognized to some degree in the preoccupation in some religious traditions with the accumulation of merit -- as it might be recognized in an afterlife.
This is explicitly evident in the Buddhist understanding of merit and its accumulation, as a condition for enlightenment (Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso Rinpoche, Accumulating Merit, 2000; Phrabhavanaviriyakhun, Buddhist Economics, Urban Dharma).
Challenge of dialogue on justice with extraterrestrials
Light: Given the fundamental role that is played by light in comprehension of the universe, there is every possibility that ETs may understand its nature in a radically distinctive manner. This could well be one which addresses what is currently termed the hard problem of consciousness, namely the problem of explaining why and how humans have qualia or phenomenal experiences.
For Buddhism the final challenge is how to treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss alike. This is termed "Samadhi" -- equal mindedness -- namely the ability to look upon light and darkness, pleasure and pain, profit and loss, fame and censure with an equal mind, otherwise understood as a luminous mind. Hence the many references to enlightenment -- although paradoxically contrasted with endarkenment (Enlightening Endarkenment: selected web resources on the challenge to comprehension, 2005).
End state: dynamic vs static? The dynamics of the universe and the occurrence of life in it offer a degree of challenge to any understanding of justice and finality -- if it is in such terms that Samadhi is to be understood (Comprehension of Unity as a Paradoxical Dynamic, 2020). The diversity of manifestation would appear to suggest a learning dynamic in which the cognitive engagement with other forms of life is fundamental -- whether ETs or otherwise, as separately explored (Life-skill Learning from Animal Shareholders and Collaborators: cognitive opportunity for engaging radically with a complex world in crisis, 2014). The latter includes discussion of:
Dialogue informed by mathematics? There are many references to mathematics as being the basis for effective communication with extraterrestrials. This assumption influenced the design of the Pioneer plaques on the 1972 and 1973 placed on spacecraft in case they were is intercepted by intelligent extraterrestrial life. It is assumed that mathematically elaborated codes would be basic to any radio contact.
The assumption is especially relevant to comprehension of justice as it might be understood by ETs, given the binary emphasis on right-or-wrong so fundamental to human justice. Of potentially greater relevance to any ET inquisition of humans are the extended notions of logic. Rather than the oversimplification of binary logic, 16 different logical connectives of two statements -- corresponding to 16 binary truth tables. Not all of them are in common use. Identified by symbols, these are called "truth-functional connectives", "logical connectives", "logical operators", or "propositional operators".
The implications are in process of articulation through so-called oppositional logic as depicted through oppositional geometry (Oppositional Logic as Comprehensible Key to Sustainable Democracy: configuring patterns of anti-otherness, 2018). Whether ETs with a focus on justice subscribe especially to this pattern, or to a more general set of patterns (of which this is but an instance), would necessarily be significant to any fruitful dialogue with humans -- especially for those convinced of their innocence. Possibilities are evident in the arguments of Fabien Schang in proposing a general Logic of Acceptance and Rejection (Agreeing about Disagreement; Abstract logic of oppositions, Logic and Logical Philosophy, 21, 2012; International disagreements, 2014; Logic in Opposition, Studia Humana, 2013).
Morphing between patterns? The challenge could also be framed in terms of the seminal Laws of Form (1969) of G. Spencer-Brown. Its essential feature is a mark symbolic of the root of cognition, indicating the capability of differentiating a "this" from "everything else but this". Of similar relevance is the study by Christopher Alexander of the process of inventing things which display new physical order, organization, form, in response to function (Notes on the Synthesis of Form, 1966) -- leading to his subsequent work on pattern language and the nature of order (The Nature of Order: an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe, 2002–2004).
In the light of the speculative argument above regarding the fundamental role of morphing in a universal context, similarly relevant would be the arguments of René Thom (Structural Stability and Morphogenesis, 1972; Semio Physics: a sketch, 1990) resulting in the development of catastrophe theory. Understood in this light, both the disasters engendered by the human species, and the challenges to effective dialogue about them (potentially with ETs) could be fruitfully reframed.
The role of morphological transformation -- and cognitive shapeshifting -- could then be recognized as relevant to dialogue in a self-destructive ecosystem. This is evident to a degree in the strategic management texts to "think like" a particular species (D. Lynch and P. Kordis, Strategy of the Dolphin: scoring a win in a chaotic world, 1988; Caleb Stewart Rossiter, The Turkey and the Eagle: the struggle for America's global role, 2010).
Dialogue could be usefully understood metaphorically in the light of the situation explored by a number of science fiction authors, namely the problem of piloting or navigating a spacecraft through "hyperspace" or "sub-space", as imagined in the light of recent advances in theoretical physics and mathematics. Because of the inherent complexity of such environments, several have explored the possibility that pilots and navigators might choose appropriate metaphors through which to perceive and order their task in relation to that complexity -- for example, flying like a bird, windsurfing, swimming like a fish, tunnelling like a mole, etc. Assisted by artificial intelligence, data is then channelled to the pilot in the form of appropriate sensory inputs to the nerve synapses corresponding to the pilot's "wings" or "fins". The pilot switches between metaphors according to the nature of the hyperspace terrain.
The requisite variety of species membership of any ET judicial commission would then reflect these contrasting logics, as implied by the more mundane examples of Edward de Bono (Six Thinking Hats, 1985; Six Frames For Thinking About Information, 2008). Given the size of a human jury, less evident is the number of species whose distinctive mode of cognition would be considered vital by ETs. From any perspective of cosmic justice, the highly developed assumption that only humans can be "right" -- and only particular humans -- is then clearly questionable, as explored by Edward de Bono (Water Logic: the alternative to I am right You are Wrong, 1993).
Metaphors in universal discourse: Given the argued composition of the ET commission, it is exceptionally curious to note the extent to which understandings of justice have been embodied by a wide variety of human cultures into tales and fables in which it is animals who clarify and exemplify the issues, most obviously Aesop's fables and the Jataka tales (Exemplary fables of proportionate response, 2006). The complementarity between the tales and the species essential to them is striking Complementary Patterns of Meaningful Truth and the Interface between Alternative Variants, 2003).
From an ET perspective, would it be that complementarity which is fundamental to the universal principles of justice? This would contrast with the linear, metaphor typical of human justice as exemplifying balance and symbolized by a weighing scale (a "balance"). Together with "bottom line", that notion has been widely incorporated into spreadsheet accounting understood as "balancing the books" -- as distinct from other geometrical metaphors potentially more relevant to a global civilization (Spherical Accounting: using geometry to embody developmental integrity, 2004).
Given the four-dimensional geometry required in discussion of oppositional logic, polyhedra of various degrees of complexity might be considered more appropriate by ETs -- especially given the transformation pathways between them through morphing, as illustrated separately (Pathway "route maps" of potential psychosocial transformation? 2015). Is the simplicity of the preferred geometric metaphors of human finance, politics, justice and religion indicative of the cognitive constraints under which human governance operates (Engaging with Globality -- through cognitive lines, circlets, crowns or holes, 2009).
Extraterrestrial preference for apostasis and unsaying? There is a strong possibility that justice in a universal sense may approximate to a higher degree with qualities variously attributed by humanity to divinity. In human consideration of the nature of divinity, a distinction is commonly made in some traditions between kataphatic theology and apophatic theology, as separately discussed (Being What You Want: problematic kataphatic identity vs. potential of apophatic identity? 2008).
These are contrasting approaches to the essentially incomprehensible, even terrifying, nature of that reality (Thinking in Terror: refocusing the interreligious challenge from "Thinking after Terror", 2005). The former describes and defines the nature of divinity through explicit terminology. The latter highlights the inadequacies of such statements by stressing what deity is not. Hence the latter is also described as negative theology and the former as positive theology (Michael A. Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying, 1994).
In that light, discourse with ETs regarding justice according to universal principles may prove to be primarily characterized by allusion and enigma -- as is evident to a degree in human tendencies in that respect (Global Strategic Implications of the "Unsaid": from myth-making towards a "wisdom society", 2003). Cosmic justice for humanity may prove to be essentially "self-administered" and "self-inflicted" through the disasters humanity is so evidently engendering. There may be little that ETs then need to say.
Of course, if ETs have a sense of humour they might explain the lack of alien contact with humanity in terms of a strict 1.5 light-year cosmic distancing rule (Humanity's Magic Number as 1.5?, 2020; Earth as a Shithole Planet -- from a Universal Perspective? 2018).
References
Elisa Aaltola and Birgitta Wahlberg. Nonhuman Animals: Legal Status and Moral Considerability. Retfærd. Nordisk juridisk tidsskrift, 38, 2015
Christopher Alexander:
- Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Harvard University Press, 1966
- The Nature of Order: an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe. 2002–2004
David Bohm and B. J. Hiley. The Undivided Universe: an ontological interpretation of quantum theory. Routledge, 1993.
Irus Braverman. More than Human Legalities: advocating an "animal turn" in law and society. The Wiley Handbook of Law and Society, 2015 [text]
Joseph Campbell. The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: myth as metaphor and as religion. Alfred van der Mark, 1986 [summary]
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Ernst Fasan. Relations with Alien Intelligences. Arno Spitz, 1970.
Andrew G. Haley:
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Mark Johnson:
- The Meaning of the Body: aesthetics of human understanding. University of Chicago Press, 2007
- The Body in the Mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. University of Chicago Press, 1987.
S. Kauffman. Humanity in a Creative Universe. Oxford University Press, 2016
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Philosophy In The Flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. Basic Books, 1999
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Michael A. Sells. Mystical Languages of Unsaying. University of Chicago Press, 1994 [contents]
Maxine Sheets-Johnstone. The Primacy of Movement. John Benjamins, 2011 [review]
Ruper Sheldrake. The Presence of the Past: morphic resonance and the habits of nature. Icon Books, 2011
Ralph G. H. Siu:
- Panetics and Dukkha: an integrated study of the infliction of suffering and the reduction of infliction. International Society for Panetics, 1994
- Less Suffering for Everybody: an introduction to panetics. International Society for Panetics, 1994
- Understanding and minimizing the infliction of suffering: an integrating and focusing discipline called panetics. International Society for Panetics, 1998
Henryk Skolimowski. The Participatory Mind: a new theory of knowledge and of the universe. Penguin/Arkana, 1994
G. Spencer-Brown. Laws of Form. Allen and Unwin, 1969
H. Stapp. Mindful Universe: quantum mechanics and the participating observer. Springer, 2011
René Thom:
- Structural Stability and Morphogenesis. Benjamin, 1972
- Semio Physics: A Sketch. Addison Wesley, 1990
V. Vederal. Decoding Reality: the universe as quantum information. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy. General System Theory. Braziller, 1968
E. H. Walker. The Physics of Consciousness: the quantum mind and the meaning of life. Perseus Books, 2000.
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