There are strange things going on in the worlds of mathematics, computer science, physics, and consciousness. In 2020, the Foundational Questions Institute Essay Contest was looking for answers to the puzzles of undecidability, uncomputability, and unpredictability. Join me as we explore the intersections of mathematics, physics and consciousness in my essay, "The Door that has No Key".  The answer to all these questions may rest with the qualities of autonoetic consciousness:  entanglement, agency and self-reference. 

Our topic today is an essay submitted in the 2017 essay contest sponsored by The Foundational Questions Institute known. The contest topic: What is Fundamental?  While most of the essayists debated things like cosmic symmetry, string theory or quantum gravity, my answer, and the topic of my essay is "Faith is Fundamental."

Today we complete a personal journey, a recounting of how my understanding of the world developed and evolved. I started with a mindset committed to absolute empirical truth, but in a painful and sometimes joyful process of discovery, I've come to a deeper understanding and appreciation for the mystery and beauty of creation and my place in it. Such understanding requires faith at its center. Faith that is integrated with science.

This story originally appeared on spiralinquiry.org in seven chapters and is offered in two podcast segments. The first episode followed the spiral down. This episode follows the spiral up! 

Today we begin a personal journey, as I recount the story of how my understanding of the world developed and evolved. I started with a mindset committed to absolute empirical truth, but in a painful and sometimes joyful process of discovery, I've come to a deeper understanding and appreciation for the mystery and beauty of creation and my place in it. Such understanding requires faith at its center. Faith that is integrated with science.

This story originally appeared on spiralinquiry.org in seven chapters and will be offered in two podcast segments. The first episode will spiral down. The second episode will spiral up! 

The topic today is "Thinking Beyond the Empirical Frontiers", an essay I originally presented at the Science and Non-Duality Conference in San Jose, CA in October 2017.   Thinking is what we do to make sense of the world. Yes, we have emotional and spiritual content in our experience, but we are cognitive sentient beings.  We seek to build a cognitive map of how the world works and what gives it meaning.  I believe the hard limits on the frontiers of empirical science and mathematics provide an opportunity to reassess our obsession with material reality.  The nature of those limits points to some fascinating ideas, many which have been explored by mystics and theologians across the centuries.

in 2017, The Foundational Questions Institute sponsored an essay contest with the title "Wandering Towards a Goal: How can Mindless Mathematical Laws Give Rise to Aims and Intention?". I argue that we have a choice. Whether to believe the Universe is Random or Purposeful. So here is essay "The How and the Why of Emergence and Intention".

This is Part 2 of "The Empirical Standard for Knowing: Faith Misplaced". Today we will explore anomalies in quantum physics, logic, and mathematics, and then suggest some modifications to the empirical tenants of faith. Changes that I believe offer a more fruitful approach to the continuing efforts to expand our knowledge and understanding of the world.

In 2016, The Institute for Religion in an Age of Science devoted their conference to the topic "How Can We Know: Co-Creating Knowledge in Perilous Times". They invited me to submit a paper on The Empirical Standard for Knowing: Faith Misplaced. We are going to cover this material in two parts. Today, in part 1, I will introduce the articles of faith that underpin empirical knowledge, and explore the questions raised in the context of relativity and complexity theory. 

The topic today is the Hole at the Center of Creation, an essay submitted in the 2015 FQXI contest. The topic for the contest was "trick or truth", on the mysterious connection between physics and mathematics. The essay points out that in pursuing fundamental questions on the nature of creation, logical order, and of consciousness, we are led inexorably to an infinite void, one we cannot cross without a transcendent, metaphysical guide.

You can download the full essay at spiralinquiry.org/essays

The evidence is clear – there is a new emergent phenomenon arising from the global integration of human knowledge and aspirations linked through advanced networks. As in each previous emergence of higher-order from lower, the behaviors that evolve from the complex interaction of the individual components cannot be predicted. Can we influence the trajectory of this emergence in ways that benefit the individuals that comprise it and increase the probabilities of continued progress? In addition, can we prepare for the potentially rare but nevertheless real possibility of the first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization? Yes, by drawing on evolutionary lessons to identify and promote collectively beneficial behaviors in our global institutions, including the institution of science. As human civilization continues to evolve, progress will be powered by knowledge, but we should arm “the tip of the spear” with the human empathic values of trust, humility, mutual respect, and shared commitment: in a word, with love, in its most universal form.