The Theory of Megamind

A re-post, for Landar, who has brought my family and I many smiles in his time on Evolver. :)

The Theory of Megamind
by Meg Rivers

Mind is everywhere, an intrinsic quality of the universe. It is omnipresent and it is free. In existence there is only One Mind.

The One Mind knows everything in its universe because it is everywhere. Life is mind embodied. When embodied, or enclosed in a vacuum, it is cut off from whatever was "remembering" its previous existence. It only knows that it knows. It is a newborn babe.

It cannot be a coincidence that outer space is one such vacuum.

Our bodies are another. Humans and animals have very short life spans and we die, thus releasing the vacuum seal where our memories are kept separate, and then poured back somehow into the One Mind before we are able to ascertain the greater meaning behind our lives.

Bacteria, however, are ancient life forms that have stayed alive for a very long time. They are able to keep the same piece of mind closed in for billions of years by making a copy of themselves before they die, thus preserving that precious seal. They remember; the piece of mind remembers. Mind seeks to retain (once embodied) what it has learned over time so that its knowledge, or information, will compound. Thus the bacteria (or microbial life) in our world are older, smarter, and wiser than anything we have imagined.

One-celled organisms have consciously created us on a biological level. The bodies of all complex life forms on Earth are composed of trillions of cells, each cell a group of individually conscious (and labor-specific) bacteria, each doing its job with one purpose in mind: to shelter and protect themselves, which made you. The bacteria that resided in Earth's early ocean are some of the same bacteria that have evolved to reside in our intestines. We are the result of billions of years of microbial evolution based on cooperation - their machine. They built us to function as both a vehicle and a computer, made in their image and then elaborated upon. We, in turn, are creating computers in our own.

This theory brings up the question on the origins of our consciousness. Our bodies are a colony of cells working together for survival, but WE are not the bacteria. Humans have always felt that WE are separate from our physical bodies, that they are not US. So what are WE, and how did WE come to be?

The answer lies at a tipping point, the magic of critical (or initial) mass. When enough beings (like the cells in your body) put their minds to use (with the same intention) in a closed environment (a vacuum), their energies begin to build weight in that space. (Hence the desire of religion to build grand chambers "to house" God with beautiful ceilings that echo. This is why singing with other people can be a transcendent experience.) As the number of beings - with this intention, in this space - increases, their combined energies will at some point reach a critical mass and ignite or implode, thus creating beings with a new, higher, level of consciousness: Superminds. Mind is embodied by this implosion sparked at the critical mass. It is thus that new souls are created. Your soul = your enclosed mind.

Every particle that has ever existed on this planet (or any other) is a mind. Each particle, as a group, has gone through an entire spectrum of culture and reached the extent of their society. When each particle group reaches a certain critical mass of consciousness (or physical weight of ideas) - across most or all of its population - a Supermind is created. One more notch on the karmic wheel (or nautilus shell) of life – the next size group of minds begin at the same place, but higher, and a wall is created which shuts off the previous generation’s knowledge. From the quark to the atom to the bacteria to our cells to us, the same scenarios and stories have been passed down from turn to turn of the wheel. Some of our stories and myths may be our own, some of them may be theirs, and most of them are probably both. Each new generation of mind tries not to make the same mistakes (but inevitably may), because ALL minds are the same mind. It is only due to their individual observances and how each particular body responds to environment that differences arise.

Complex animals are composed of eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotes are composed of bacteria that cooperated during times of scarcity to form a larger, and more versatile organism: the cell. [They are now our organelles.] Eukaryotic cells created US by repeating the cycle that created them, by dividing up physical labor, allocating more strenuous jobs to other - and perhaps less intelligent – cells (or particles) that were good at certain tasks (reflecting light, carrying oxygen or other heavier molecules, receiving audio, etc.). It is no coincidence that the multi-cellular organism functions at the cellular level exactly as does the division of labor in humans. It is also no coincidence that amoebas, when faced with a shortage of resources, will cooperate for survival and behave like the immune system of a multi-cellular being.

At some point, all those cells cooperating harmoniously together gave rise to a new mind: US.

They are us and we are them, but we are bigger, and therefore have the power to observe more. One-celled organisms are composed of particles that are already Supermind. The simple cell enclosing those particles reached a new level: Supramind. Those cells cooperated to create our complex cells: SuperSupramind. We are SupraSuperSupramind...for the sake of discussion let's call us Megamind, as there is no way to be certain how many minds have come before us.

Now that we know we are Megamind, it creates a new question: What does mind want? What is it trying to do? Or better yet, what is the purpose of life?

Let's start here: if the One Mind knows everything and is omnipresent, why would it seek separateness, or allow a part to separate from its greater self?

It may not know where its ultimate source lies; it only knows what it has observed from its physical vantage.

Two minds are better than one, because they have different perspectives. Each mind strives to gain enough knowledge to become a Supermind, and flow to a new place where it might learn more. There is always a greater mind to merge into, an infinite source of mind. Mind behaves like water, always seeking its source, always trying to find a way to get out of whatever universe has enclosed it so it can be free in the end, if there is one. It is possible that it knows no more than we do, but has one major advantage: it can observe much more.

This process of smaller minds creating Superminds eternally perpetuates itself in our universe and beyond, on scales and in sizes unthinkable. One becomes two, and those two work together to create more. Each mind spawns a new universe using whatever materials were with it when it became closed off. The existing universe expands as each universal body within it grows, just as one cell (once fertilized by the joining of two, whose union clearly create the spark for Megamind, our embryo) divides and grows into a new baby, who gets bigger and spreads outward with each passing year.

Once on a higher level than everything in existence, wouldn't the very first Supermind (or universe) then have found itself alone? It would have. It encompassed the many small minds that created it and cannot communicate with them (YET). How would it ever get to Supramind, if that requires the cooperation of at least one other Supermind (or universe) like itself that does not yet exist?

Supermind begins at some point the process of making a copy of itself, perhaps at the moment of implosion or ignition.

The big bang was our universe's first division. Like bacteria, and like DNA. Perhaps the implosion itself is an initiator protein bubble. A black hole is likely the last bit of a universe as it separates, sucking the last important copy of information into the twin universe on the other side.

Thus we exist in a Multiverse, as the original universe grows and divides on an immense and very slow scale. However, it is possible that each universe (or cell) is unable to divide perfectly and completely (or simply has not yet had enough time to do so) and the division between the two becomes infinitely stretched, causing all universes to be connected by at least a tiny string. Some early universes must be so tiny that they seem like the ends of the string. It is also possible that (much like in cell division) the copy has a mutation, making it difficult to ascertain that it is in fact a copy.

Last thoughts: where do the new minds come from? They had to have existed previously. And where does our Megamind go when we die? Perhaps the fact that these two questions remain implies that they answer one another. It is likely that energies are simply recycled until the group is ready for the merger into a larger mind.

WHAT I PROPOSE

I propose an application of the paradigm of cell division to the processes of physics, to further an understanding of both the cosmos and the atom. It is my belief that cell division is the base model for all life on this planet and beyond, and that all things are to some degree alive or possess mind. It is also my belief that taking a closer look at random walk, or the movement patterns of bacteria, may shed light on the shape of the multiverse. I also feel it would be scientifically beneficial to take a different approach to examining the differences (and similarities) between crystal and cell structure.

Scientists believe that Earth’s early atmosphere was red, like Mars. It is my belief that the conditions for life do not spring up spontaneously on a planet, but rather are created by life on the planet as it changes and grows. The first forms of life here were anaerobic bacteria which changed into creatures who could photosynthesize using light; it was only then that the sky turned blue. I theorize that each planet is terra-formed by a life force, and that atmospheres are created by the life force to serve its own purpose. Venus was the planet terra-formed before us, and Mars will be the next.

It is a working theory of biology that our individual cells are actually specialized bacteria (or a similar microbe) that, along with the ancient and highly evolved bacteria residing in our guts, are conscious and able to communicate with one another. Scientists in the field of molecular biology are already trying to decipher their language, in the field of quorum sensing. I am proposing that we change the paradigm of medical science to include the possibility that our cells (and the cells of every being) are conscious in the same way that we are, and accept the possibility that they may already understand human language, and are able to contact us by accessing video, audio, and sensory information already stored in human language: The Voice of God.

I also believe that bacteria become virulent (in some cases) when their host dies. They hope that another colony will grant them entry into their world. They are harmful because they are desperate and hungry, which causes them to be resentful of bacteria that do have a home (and an army to protect them). Spirochetes, some of the earliest forms of life, aren't efficient workers by themselves, and no one wants them. They cause some of the deadliest diseases in life because they are being phased out, much like criminals in our own communities. I believe that we need to find virulent strains a more suitable environment; perhaps they need to be accommodated rather than punished so that we can all coexist.

I am also proposing that most beings are a type of sea creature, plant, or fungal hybrid bacterial colony. Relatively simple multi-cellular organisms such as sponges, arthropods, and coral were some of the first animals to evolve in the early ocean. At the Cambrian explosion, more complex multi-cellular organisms show up in the fossil record, great in number and disproportionately diversified. I propose that these early, structurally simple animals fused themselves together to build a super-organism that could crawl out of a difficult sea - the first mobile land animal, intelligently designed. We evolved on land from this point, and cephalopods are the evolutionary pinnacle of the minds that stayed behind. I believe that our teeth may be descendents of parasitic arthropods (which molt like spiders), and that our other body parts might have a much closer relationship to the sea than previously believed.

It is also possible that the cells in our retina or iris are plant-like (or cyanobacteria-like) in origin, as they have the ability to use light. I propose that the scientific community accept the possibility that some (or all) plants have the ability of sight (assuming they have a center of intelligence somewhere to process it) or at least can sense form and color, and that camouflage and mimicry of other species is a direct result of them taking the shape of what they have observed (orchids and stinkhorns being the most obvious examples). The universe acts as a mirror; it takes the form of whatever it observes (past or present) from its vantage. This would explain the DNA phantom effect observed in physics.

Thus, it is my belief that cells consciously change in response to their environment, at least in the capacity that they are physically able to over time and with the exertion of effort. While natural selection is a major force determining the evolution of life on this planet, it is not the only.

Update: Scientists have recently determined that the skin of cuttlefish and octopi has photoreceptors and can in essence "see" with every cell, read here: http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/6/5/600.full

Also that the entire outer skin of a sea urchin is one big eye, read here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110502-sea-urchins-eyes-...

And my work is as-of-yet-unpublished, in which I introduce the topic of allegorical sight and intelligence in orchid species.