The Biocentric Universe Theory: Life Creates Time, Space, and the Cosmos Itself | DiscoverMagazine.com As the link suggests, that it is consciousness itself that is responsible for the universe. The author takes this idea from how subatomic particles behave differently when observed as opposed to when they are not. I guess the issue I have is I don't see how this theory could ever be tested or verified. Doesn't mean it isn't true... But at some point it stops being science, doesn't it? It is interesting though. Thought I'd share.
That everything is alive or consciousness itself was something even Heisenberg understood was an implication of quantum mechanics almost a century ago. Its sometimes called "consensual reality" and suggests something similar to Jung's Collective Unconscious. However, what the author fails to describe is what the hell he means by life or consciousness. Without a clear description, the words are merely gibberish, and if it is the ground state then what it requires is systems logic, which he never touched on. Academic philosophers all have their heads up their asses for the most part, while physicists often don't know the first thing about philosophy, making for a perfect circle jerk.
It's not a "radical new" theory at all. A lot of Dharmic religions envisioned the universe as being a "dream of the gods", and even the Abrahamic notion of "God the sustainer" and Berkeleyan idealism is based on the intuition that the universe needs a perceiver to exist. Replace God with "humans" or conscious creatures generally. They are riffs on the same idea. There's even that old koan: "if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there do hear it, does it make a sound?" It may be true from a practical point of view, but as far as science goes...who knows?
It could be tested if one's consciousness were able to alter physical reality in a Weird Science kind of way. It would be indicative that such is the case, anyhow, but our society doesn't permit for that kind of flight of imagination. If you could have a test group of people willing to kind of have sensory deprivation and play tricks on them. Basically guinea pigs that might just go completely insane, maybe. But you can't have that in people who have to do their workaday week.
