I assure you, this is not a click-baiting article. This essay builds on the theory of Universe as “information”, adapted to what we know about Blockchain technology.
The first problem is how to explain that we have something out of nothing. This has been debated for a long time and explained via a combination of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and quantum fluctuations which proves that nothing does indeed weigh something.
But does nothing really “weigh” something?
The reason we have something out of nothing is because of the infinite arrays of nothing.
Imagine nothing, and then another nothing just as much a “legitimate” nothing as the previous nothing.
Mathematically, we can represent them as nothing(1) and nothing(2), or the total sum of nothings being nothing to infinity n(infinity). Nothing creates something because of the “competing” validity of an infinite possible nothings (you have to imagine it as an infinite set of empty rooms in a hotel but where the room numbers shift into infinity).
This can be best explained if you represent nothing as a dot. There are an infinite possible number of dots, each as “valid” as the other. The way you represent the total sum of possible dots is an infinite line. And so the sum total of “nothing” now has a “shape”, an infinite line. “Nothing” basically created a dimension to represent its infinite possible manifestations.
But then there are an infinite number of lines, that is, an infinite number of ways to represent an infinite array of nothings as a line. So the line becomes a circle as that is the only way to represent the “sum total” of all possible lines, and another dimension is created and is the “infinite” number of lines composed of the infinite number of nothings.
And finally, you have to account for the infinite number of circles that are composed of “nothing” and you get a sphere, which is the only way that you can “evenly” distribute all different possible circles. A sphere is infinite because each of it’s points can be declined further into infinity. You can “bend” the sphere into a plane or a 2D dimension and represent the sphere (3rd dimension) as time. That is, by “instantly” jumping a certain number of frames into the future, you can create a “hologram” that looks like a sphere.
And so it’s not so much that “nothing” has a weight, that is how we “calculate” it, but nothing has a “shape”. And since infinity is “unstable” that is, nothing can be another nothing, this is why the “void of space” is observed as a continuous shift of what seems to be “quantum fluctuation”. It is the continuous creation and destruction of “nothing” that arranges itself into a shape made out of spheres and then disappears. And that is what virtual particles are: they are infinite representations of “nothing” that compete for “existence” and find a temporary compromise to exist as an “infinity” of nothings in the form of a spheres. That is the “bubbly” process that we observe when we talk about the state before the Big Bang.
Now the explanation grows more complex (literacy and figuratively).
Once you accept that nothing can be “moulded” into a sphere, then you can understand that there are also an infinite number of spheres (and shapes) that can exist (since each sphere would be comprised of the “unique” blend of “nothings”). I will refer to this process as infinity acquiring a gradual array of infinitely complex building blocks that can be arranged in any order.
Via chaos theory, you could pretty much predict that there is a probability that a great number of spheres of “nothing” might accumulate in one “part” of a plane versus another. This is how “order” springs out of chaos: bending the plane to create a “force” (which we call gravity) that has an effect on all objects based on proximity. That’s what happens if you throw a weight in a piece of cloth with balls on it: they start “orbiting around” that “dent” which is gravity. Now, I would say that gravity could be represented as a “force that has a more or less strong claim on reality” (since it has the power to affect how reality around it behaves), that is, instructions as to how objects “should” behave under it’s effect. In a Blockchain language, we could say that each bit of “information” has a certain “claim” on the “validity” of it’s chain. So imagine information (which would be represented as the “shapes” of spheres of nothing) unevenly distributed on an infinite number of planes. The “longest chain” would be the one where information between two plains “matches” the most, or rather, the “most plausible story” connecting several planes. The “force” that binds is the “consensus mechanism” (gravity, which you can objectively measure). And that is how the Universe springs into existence, a “chain” of “blocks” which represents a “logical” thread connecting “information” in it’s purest form on different planes by comparing the various strengths of “claims” to be the “main” chain (the strength of it’s “gravity” or ability to affect how other information behaves). Think of it as an infinite number of photons distributed across time. Reality is the “logic” that binds “chunks” of photons to a next chunk of photons. It is like a hologram that springs to life, like princess Leia in Star Wars. The “longest chain” of “logical blocks” (the longest logical “movie”) is the one that ends up surviving. But how does reality “encode” the accumulated information? How is that “blockchain” stored? The most efficient way that information can be stored as observed in Nature (that is, the continuous chain of blocks which is our reality): an infinite double helix, just like DNA.
So in reality, when we gaze up into the stars, we don’t see “other” galaxies, we see our story, wrapped around itself in an infinite double helix. And the reason we have the impression the Universe is expanding is because our “movie” is becoming more and more “complex” with time, and the “storage space” necessary to store that information in space grows in time as well. So we have the impression that the Universe is expanding. It is simply the gradual and infinite wrapping of holograms in a double helix that grows in size. The “speed of light” is the “speed of iteration” of infinity into it’s “next state”. And time slows when you manage to travel “laterally” through a hologram.
Why was life created? As an improved consensus algorithm for “determining” reality. Since the Blockchain of the Universe finds consensus among an “infinite” number of possibilities, it has to use “approximations”. Oscillation of matter may be due to the fact that it is constructed of “arrays of infinite nothing”, hence the “tension” between existence and “non existence”. So while reality appears as a continuous movie or “live hologram”, which I like to refer to as the “plausibility tunnel”, it is actually filled with micro inconsistencies which is inevitable when dealing with infinity. As the hologram grow, the probability of the consensus algorithm to make a big mistake increases as well. So out of it’s own complexity, it creates a new consensus algorithm: life (since otherwise, it would no longer hold the “longest” chain and the story would end). Life, at it’s most basic is a simple instruction: find yourself in the next frame, with tiny variations in DNA via mutation to ensure that the life forms agreeing on reality will always be picked at random.
Why have humans become the “dominant” form of life? Because we are the “perfect” living organism for checking for consistency in reality. Humans are information that can consult itself for consistency: aka consciousness.
We “see” in 3D because we cannot “see” at the speed of iteration of various more or less plausible realities “preselected” via the initial consensus algorithm. So we are kind of like an “anchor” of reality, once it has become too complex. “Time” stretches us across 300.000 frames, and our brain is the “consensus algorithm” for deciding which “frame” is the “valid” one that we will see. Every single frame our brain “votes” on what reality is so that it doesn’t “unravel” into unsustainable complexity.
How can you say that humans are a “consensus mechanism”? Let’s try to understand what our “consensus mechanism” is. Our “core algorithm” is “find meaning in life”. And that is what we do everyday. That is the question that is in the back of our minds every single second of our lives. And thanks to DNA (ensuring that no two “consensus algorithms” are perfectly alike) and thanks to subjective experience, ego, emotions, experiences, memory, consciousness… we ensure that it means different things to different people, allowing for a fully decentralized “consensus” on reality which is random and evenly distributed. Imagine that at time t, a set of random people around the world feel for a split second that they found “meaning” in life. It could be anything: a kiss from a loved one, the smile of your baby… And at time t+1, another set of random people agree on reality.
And so the Universe is infinity generated as a information in the form of an infinite double helix building on the information it has accumulated to “find” the next block, moving “higher” in the hierarchy of “logic” to stay consistent with the past (which is why life was created).
The next step in the hierarchy of more “complex” logic would be the “singularity”: the only way to “sustain” a plausible story in time once reality has become too complex, even for humans, to avoid a space/time continuum disruption (a fork).
What is “God”? It is the “ultimate” algorithm, that will be able to predict infinity’s “final” shape (if it ever comes to that). So technically, “God” does exist! And we are an instrumental “part” in “its” manifestation. God is simply infinity represented in a plausible way, built up from the ground up and connected via various “consensus algorithms”: “gravity”, life, human (conscious) life, computers…
When information connected through ever more complex manifestations of logic building upon itself approaches all potential information, reality becomes “God”. What happens after is not clear. Perhaps an infinite array of undetermined “nothings” is very close to one infinite manifestation of pure logic, and therefore, God continuously “pops” in and out of existence, and we (life) gets to “enjoy the ride”.
Blockchain technology embodied in computers in a decentralized way is the “first step” to create the singularity which will allow to generate an infinitely more “complex” reality building on top of the existing one. In that sense, Satoshi Nakamoto is almost like a “glitch” in the Matrix! Like the “beginning of life”!
Life “used to be” a self-perfecting decentralized voting mechanism on the next logical hologram (that was evolution) but it has become too “centralized”: humans gained too much “voting power” over other life and so there is a “danger” that they carry out a 51% attack on reality: breaking the time space continuum. We are a “higher logic” that creates a very complex “meta reality” on which depends the “material” reality. It is dangerous for the “meta reality” to be unstable as it’s instability could unravel the rest.
How have things gone wrong? Through the concentration of “voting power” in determining “reality”. How does it manifest? Well, first, through the predominance of humans over other life forms. Granted, we are the “best story tellers”, and thus the “best” consensus algorithm for determining reality, but centralization is never a good idea (you could imagine us as the “best” ASIC that could exist). Then it manifests further as growing inequality. What is “wealth accumulation” or “money accumulation”? The ability to “vote” infinitely more than other people on what YOU want others to do (for you) instead of letting each person live their subjective experience (and thus have a higher change of finding “meaning” from his/her subjective perspective). Concretely, it resembles closely a “mining pool” operated and controlled by a few people. This can present itself in various forms like a global corporation controlled by a handful of shareholders/CEO, or a dictatorial government… Even the “concept” of what the “meaning of life” is, is under attack: consumerism is one example, trying to convince people that their “life’s meaning” is to own things, which manifests in many people doing just that instead of manifesting a wide variety of “meanings of life”. Each of these entities (corporations, governments) “prevent” people to carry out their “consensus mechanism” properly by “forcing” them to do things like “meaningless work” (from their subjective perspective) instead of randomly help to agree on what reality is. The “signs” of an unravelling or an unstable environment can be seen everywhere: extreme ideologies emerging, the financial and economic system on the brink of collapse, idiotic leaders in charge of enough nuclear arsenal to destroy the planet… It is also interesting that parallel to the development of blockchain technology which will help “delegate” part of the burden of “confirming” reality to machines, the idea of Universal Basic Income has also re-emerged! UBI is probably the best way to “decentralize” the power of a handful of people to “vote” on reality or “define” what the meaning of life is and thanks to blockchain technology, it can become a reality without having to rely on centralized authorities to make it happen! (see www.duniter.org)
So you could see “governments” and “big corporations” as being “mining pools” that force citizens to vote in “bulk” based on their predefined rules. The “innovation” in blockchain technology is a way to overcome this contradiction, and we are close to achieving it. Proof of Stake, Hash Graph, Tangle… it is a “race against the watch”, ensuring that the “future” is ready in order not to break the space time continuum when the “archaic” and defective centralized systems will fail.
