As we have seen, the brilliant fine-tuning of Nature is most clearly indicated in the evolutionary process which Nature has facilitated here upon the Earth. Over some 3 and a half billion years, our planet has transformed itself from a lifeless mass of rock into a veritable metabolising organic matrix in which countless replicating patterns swarm about the Earth's surface, each pattern or organism an informational expression of Natural Intelligence. Yet, like the hour hand of a clock, science has failed to see the contextually directed movement of Natural Intelligence, claiming instead that evolution is essentially a pointless and mindless process. But this can only be a subjective inference likely drawn according to the perceived duration over which evolution works, a duration so great that the intelligence operating over such spans remains all but invisible. If we instead imagine viewing a time-lapse film of Gaia wherein 3 and a half billion years of information-gaining evolution are compressed into but one intense second, then modern electronic human culture and human consciousness explodes instantaneously into existence, bursting forth out of the earth's ocean of elemental constituents. This awesome pattern of self-organisation can be no mere accident. To those who would still scoff at such an assertion, I can only ask them this: if the aforementioned capacity of the Universe does not suggest a great intelligence at work then what sort of Universe would?
Notwithstanding sullen detractors, if we embrace our River of Life metaphor, the totality of life clearly represents the thrust of an intelligent process of information-integration, and I argue that this is the essence of reality, the essence of the process which bred and killed Einstein and which controls our destiny also. Since all the information needed to support confluential patterning is etched into the 'software' of the Universe, then life and the emergence of consciousness can be viewed as a kind of translational process whereby the informational code or meaning inherent in reality is deliberately read out over time. Somewhere within the reality process a biosphere had to form, since it was coded for in the lawful contextual fabric of the Universal Computation. And within such a biosphere - of which there may be millions in the Universe - evolution was destined at some time to produce nervous systems, and, eventually, brains capable of embodying consciousness. Patterns forever falling naturally into place like some cosmic jig-saw.
The conscious aspect of Homo sapiens thus resolves itself as a potent expression of the latest and most reflective form of information-integration to emerge out of the language uttered by Natural Intelligence - reflective because our kind is able to reflect upon how we came to be, as if the human cortex be a biologically wrought mirror able to catch the face of Natural Intelligence upon its refined surface.
As with all other forms of information, consciousness really was poised to emerge; it was determined by the Universal Software once the appropriate contextual relations had come into being. And so here we stand, the as-yet supreme hominid species, upright, balanced most precariously atop the jungle and atop the technology we have created, our gaze now set upon the expanding intelligible cosmos. Each human psyche, imbued with meaning from the Universal context in which it has arisen, is able to wonder at the mystery of it all, the reality of the intelligent Other in whose hands we lie collectively like transformed clay. In an instant of cosmic time, consciousness has arisen out of physics, chemistry and biology, a living mirror able to reflect the forces and the processes which so engendered it. As information comes to be organised and integrated in ever more elaborate ways, eventually all information will have been integrated and all uncertainty will have been vanquished.
The evolution of life on Earth, the gradual elaboration of the Gaian system, and the emergence of conscious human culture - all dependent upon the intelligently configured context of Nature - strongly suggests that we are inside a most interesting and creative part of the Universe. It is as if one of the mightiest currents within the computational River of Life were flowing around us right here and right now, focused within our modern electronic culture. In other words, if the creative centre of the Universe be the place where the most complex forms of information-integration are being channelled, then we are surely in or near the centre. Or at least we are amidst one of the focus points of Natural Intelligence. The amount of information being organised in one way or another all around us is so dense that one can feel it. Actively flowing information bombards us at every turn as it seeks resolution. The late 20th century, as a collective experience, is like some shimmering effervescent informational protoplasm exuded by Gaia as she seeks to attain cohesion and stability at some higher level of organisation.
Those scientists who diligently propound the myth that we are mere bystanders on a speck of dust remote from the heart of the Universe do the phenomena of life and consciousness a major disservice. As far as we know, in terms of informational activity, the existence of humanity (some 6 billion interconnected minds), perched as it is upon the millennium, is far and away more complex and intriguing than anything else in the known Universe. Gaia, in its totality including all of human culture, is surely the place to be.
If reality is indeed a rushing river of integrating information, then it must surely be destined to meet some final organised form. This would appear to be an inescapable conclusion if my reasoning so far is correct. For if the processes of organic life and human consciousness were a latent capacity woven into the fabric of reality, then there must surely be more information yet to be read out of the Universal Computation. If Natural Intelligence is anywhere as massive as I suspect, then there absolutely must be some final point or solution to it's prodigious algorithmic Gaian-sized endeavours.
To give the reader a flavour of this further-information-read-out scenario, consider the following thought experiment. Geneticists tell us that a fair proportion of the DNA found in all organisms serves some as-yet unknown function. On a world-wide scale, the total amount of this affectionately termed 'junk DNA' must be immense. But what if it were a form of latent information that was set to go into action only when environmental circumstances were in a particular state? What if the biosphere suddenly assumed a context to which this globally distributed DNA was tuned? Anything might happen. All organisms might suddenly mutate and forge themselves together. The possibilities are endless since DNA is so rich in its capacity to organise chemical and biological processes. Perhaps the reader can think of some alternative possibility.
I offer such entertaining speculation not because I believe it to be true, only that this kind of idea highlights, in principle, how reality as we know it might well be coded to produce some climactic output at some stage of its evolutionary progression. Equally plausible is the idea that our computer technology might spawn some new level of information-integration - the so-called emergence of cyberspace for instance - a kind of virtual or digital computerised dimension into which the agency of human consciousness can be transferred. In point of fact, as I remarked in the last chapter, through the rise of telecommunications and computing technology, the Earth does seems to be wiring itself up into an integrated digital network, a bio-electronic entity in which widely dispersed informational systems like the human psyche can communicate with one another virtually instantly across the globe. This magical technology, similar as it is to the communicational activity of the synapsing neuronal brain, is clearly evolving at an unprecedented rate, and with the development of transglobal computer networks like the internet, the eventual emergence of a 'tangible' cyberspatial dimension of some kind seems assured. Indeed, judging by the unprecedented boom in speculative documentaries about the near future of computing systems now appearing in the media, it would appear that a fully interactive cyberspace of one sort or another is almost in reach.
What this kind of rife pop divination reveals is just how forcibly the future now looms upon us. It is as if we were moving ever more rapidly toward some new technological breakthrough involving information-integration which will transform our culture, a transformation not only inevitable but whose shadow is already upon us, stirring us into prophetic thinking. For when else in our history has there been such concentrated speculation about the very near future? More to the point, if some unimaginable fully integrated state were to be reached in the near future, whether mediated through computer telecommunication or some other orchestrational medium, then clearly Nature has always been coded for such an eventual output. Maybe this could be considered the ultimate output of the Universal Computation, for it would represent the translated rebirth of the Other, the blossoming of Gaia, a final planetary condition which Nature has been pre-programmed in some way to achieve.
Most of us however are content to allow ourselves to be drawn almost passively along within the computational River of Life. We build sturdy rafts made of material goods and social status. We surround ourselves with items which our culture injects with value, and these are what keep us afloat. And yet our rafts, no matter how robustly they may be constructed, and no matter how much wealth they contain, will eventually be destroyed, eaten up by the process in which they are swept along. The time allotted to our DNA is finite, we are digitally programmed by Natural Intelligence so as to grow old and die, just as surely as we are built to grow through puberty and reproduce. We are patterns of information which swirl into ordered existence within the Universal Computation, only to break up in the wink of a cosmic eye. Good reason then why we should think more carefully about where the river is headed, for then we might discern our proper role within the integrative flow.
As a conscious species riding upon the crest of an intelligent wave, our collective knowledge represents a kind of growing certainty about the Universe. As this certainty or information continues to increase, we will gradually realise exactly why we have evolved. The intelligence of Nature - all of Nature from the Universal software to Gaia - is thus becoming fully reflected through human consciousness and in the knowledge systems held within our culture. This is suggestive of a kind of birth. The computing agency running the Universal Computation is the intelligence, the Other, and is in the process of 'downloading' itself onto human culture, particularly human consciousness, just as a caterpillar 'downloads' itself into the form of a butterfly. The intelligence of the Other is therefore undergoing metamorphosis through the process of evolution. As information-integration continues to build up within Gaia, so too is the Gaian system being informed by the intelligence which constructed it. If this is so, then the purpose of life must indeed be to embody a new form of the Other.
Such a possibility is clearly similar in kind to Fred Hoyle's speculations. However, I do not believe that Natural Intelligence is itself descended from some previous form of intelligence. What I suspect is that the entire Universal Computation - Nature and all its information - is the manifestation of the intent, or will, of the Other. Which is to say that the Other, or Natural Intelligence, is that which is doing the computing, that which is 'holding reality in mind'. After 15 or so billion years of reality in which the grand scheme of the Other's intent has been realised, consciousness has now emerged which can assimilate the Other.
It is as if information, like energy, cannot be destroyed, and that the informational content of reality, which remains constant, is in the process of reforming itself from moment to moment. If we think of a computer program able to take as input some text and then output that text in the form of a new language, or smoothly morph one image into another image, then likewise the reality process around us can be viewed as a 15 billion year long translation of the Other from one language-like form into another which lies in the future. Thus the very nature of Nature (the Universal Software) was rich in organised information from the start, and this information comes to be read out, or be translated, or be transformed, through the evolutionary process. Consciousness of the Other i.e. knowledge pertaining to our true situation in the reality process, therefore represents the translation of the Other into a new form so that, in some sense, consciousness may actually serve to become the Other. Again, this suggests a kind of birth, albeit of an awesome kind. Indeed, life can be considered as just that; the living meta-symbolic birth and growth of the Other into some new form, with human life, global culture, and particularly human consciousness representing the 'coming of age' of the Other's translation. It sounds unbelievable, yet if we are pressed to provide some kind of metaphysical explanation for an ultra-smart Universe, then I believe that ideas such as these must be near to the mark.
One mystic who anticipated these ideas was the eminent Jesuit priest and palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He was one of those rare breed of Christian thinkers whose faith increased due to knowledge about the evolutionary process. Indeed, this explains his scientific interest in fossils and evolution (and, I might add, his excommunication by his religious 'superiors').
Teilhard believed that evolution was a purposeful process which would reach a climax at some time in the future, this point representing a kind of totally integrated state of life. For him, this would be the Omega Point, the point to which the Universe is destined to reach. This future state was also considered by Teilhard to somehow send influences back in time as though the Omega Point were an eternal sun able to shine its light upon the surface of human history.
Although Teilhard's thinking was deeply mystical, some of his work was respected by a number of traditional evolutionary theorists, most notably the biologist Julian Huxley. However, for most 'hard-nosed' scientists who chance upon Teilhard's work, he remains no more than a mystic dreamer, a refined P.K.Dickensian soul whose ideology is basically unfit for serious consideration and open to cheap ridicule. Unless that is, one has repeatedly experienced the numinous presence of the Other, in which case his ideas become rather alluring.
In The Future of Man, Teilhard writes about the Omega Point in the following rather poetical way:
"Let us suppose that from this universal centre, this Omega point, there constantly emanate radiations hitherto only perceptible to those persons whom we call 'mystics'. Let us further imagine, as the sensibility or response to mysticism of the human race increases with planetisation {the unification of humanity}, the awareness of Omega becomes so widespread as to warm the Earth psychically while physically it is growing cold. Is it not conceivable that Mankind, at the end of its totalisation, its folding-in upon itself, may reach a critical level of maturity where, leaving Earth and stars to lapse slowly back into the dwindling mass of primordial energy, it will detach itself from this planet and join the one true, irreversible essence of things, the Omega point? A phenomenon perhaps outwardly akin to death: but in reality a simple metamorphosis and arrival at the supreme synthesis."
Teilhard's mention of a cooling Earth was probably a response to the growing realisation at the time he wrote the book that the Universe appeared to be 'running down' due to the dreaded second law of thermodynamics. This revered law states, in no uncertain terms, that the Universe is 'wilting' and faces a heat death extinction. All of the Universe's energy, it is said, will eventually be converted into a meaningless expanse of useless heat. Now that's a gloomy thought for sure and a dangerous weapon in the hands of our archetypal reductive scientist who might begin to prod us with it even now. However, according to our reasoning, the Universal Computation must have surely required such a 'negative' law in order to function in the way it has. Evolution has thus had to circumvent this 'running down' tendency by building 'dissipative structures' - metabolising organisms - in order to convert energy into a useable form. So, although closed systems do run down and reach equilibrium (a boring state in which nothing of interest happens), open systems like Gaia are able to build up order (from our sun which itself depends upon the nature of the Universal Computation for its existence) by giving off disorder (like infrared heat radiation) into space. In this way, Natural Intelligence has defeated the spectre of the second law of thermodynamics, and informational integration via evolution has taken hold. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Natural Intelligence has engineered a certain kind of tension in the Universal Computation which life must continually 'struggle' against in order to develop, a process which, if you think about it, is strangely reminiscent of will.
When Teilhard wrote about the Omega Point, he was probably less aware than we are today of the fact that the Universal software is highly specific and conducive to life. Hence he saw the second law as a threat to life, but foresaw that life would reach the Omega Point, just in the nick of time as it were, before the Universe ran down, or at least our poor sun ran down. In other words, he located the Omega Point far, far ahead in time. But, as we have seen, science has now reached the stage where it can appreciate not only the computational quality of reality, but also the fine-tuning of Nature. In my mind, this is strong evidence that we are in the 'good hands' of the Other, and, more significantly, that the Omega Point might be nearer than Teilhard supposed. Of course, it is preferable to think of such an event as being near as opposed to far away. Yet, with the growth in entheogenic epistemology initiated in the 50's and 60's, and the emerging interest in shamanism and organic psilocybin, it might well be that the illuminations caused by the Omega Point are on the increase, which in turn suggests that we are moving ever nearer to this climactic point.
Not surprisingly, Terence McKenna has echoed the mystical claims made by Teilhard. He has assumed the unenviable role of psychedelic prophet by consistently claiming that human history will be utterly transformed (or end) in late December 2012. This date derives from his mathematical 'fractal theory of time' which views time as a cyclical patterning process involving a continual 'ingression of novelty', and which implies a definite culmination point. The date also coincides with the mysterious end date of the Mayan calendar, the Maya being a time-obsessed civilisation (this Mayan end-of-time prophesy was not known to McKenna when he first developed his theory).
At this time, so says McKenna, the full purpose of reality will become manifest as information-integration, or the ingression of novelty as he calls it, reaches its zenith. There lies the 'transcendental object', the eschaton, which, like Teilhard's Omega Point, "sheds reflections of itself into the past", reflections which inspire and illuminate saints, mystics, and the mind of the visionary shaman. Also in line with Teilhard's Omega Point, McKenna suggests that this future state of transcendence somehow exists now, or in eternity, and it is towards such a state that we and the reality process are being inexorably drawn. One can imagine the future state to be like a magnet, that life and the evolutionary emergence of consciousness be akin to the process whereby iron filings assume structural alignment according to the nearness of the magnet. Indeed, all of Nature's fortuitous self-organisational properties - like the emergence of DNA for example - can been be seen as deriving from the presence of some future 'magnetically-charged' state which 'pulls' them into being.
In terms of the Universal Computation we have been entertaining, the Omega Point must represent the final output state or full rebirth of the Other within the Gaian system. The willed metamorphosis will be complete. The Universal code will have been fully expressed, all information/knowledge achieving a state of coalescence. The Other, Natural Intelligence, will have completed its translation from one unified state of being into another.
McKenna has also used the term 'attractor' to describe this final eschatological state to which life is destined to reach. An attractor is a kind of abstract final state towards which physical systems are drawn. In the case of a swinging pendulum encountering friction, the attractor of that system is the state of the system where the pendulum is at rest. In whatever position one starts the pendulum moving, it will always end up in the attractor state. Likewise, in the case of chess, the attractor is the state of checkmate towards which the game discretely progresses. Attractors are thus inherent in various systems and are akin to the metaphorical magnet I previously described.
In terms of the Universe at large, it could be argued that the attractor towards which it is being inexorably drawn is a kind of 'big crunch' whereby the Universe collapses into a singularity due to the effects of gravity. However, we can also view the attractor as being not a super-concentration of 'matter', but an integrated state of information or meaning. When human culture and human consciousness has succeeded in realising its true role and function within reality, and when the Other has fully transformed or reflected itself within the totality of Gaia, then this will represent the attractor or final stage of the reality process as we know it. At that point, Nature will have made maximum sense of itself.
If we posit an attractor, we should also bear in mind that the nearer it is, the greater its effect and the greater the patterning procedures co-ordinated into place. Such a process might even explain recent and unusually rapid forms of evolution like that of the hominid cortex, as well as the subsequent speedy evolution of human culture and the more recent yearly evolution of digital technology. Dwelling upon this, one automatically thinks of a spiral process, or self-tightening gyre, in which Nature is frantically assuming a state through which more and more information-integration can take hold. Perhaps the end-point of any Gaian system will be a kind of 'local' singularity, alike in nature to the assumed singularity from which the Universe sprung, a state of informational unification although this time embodied through a planet-wide shared experience.
If such a fantastic phenomenon were to actually realise itself in the near future, then it would surely have to be preceded by a tremendous surge of information announcing or heralding the event. I do not mean angels blowing trumpets, but rather that science ought to make some new discoveries which indicate the intentionality and intelligence of Nature. Or, if the paradigm of a naturally intelligent reality process were to grow, then it would mean a re-interpretation of the data already amassed through science, and this might further highlight our unique position within the evolution of the cosmos. Alternatively, some new technological innovation or natural phenomenon might serve to make everyone more conscious of the interconnectedness of the biosphere, both in terms of the biosphere's life forms and its mindful elements. This could then set the ground for holistic and synchronised global action experienced en masse. Either way, if the evolutionary process as we know it is indeed smart and destined to 'conclude' in some way according to its inherent code, then it will simply have to proceed just as an organism has to grow. Natural Intelligence cannot be stopped; it can only be observed and be appreciated whilst in action.
That we can experience the Other through entheogenic plants or by contemplating the intelligent nature of Nature, indicates that something is indeed emerging before the collective human psyche, that some great coherent pattern lies behind the hypnotic glare of secular reality, and awaits our perception. Or perhaps the Other has been dormant, as though asleep, hibernating as it were, only to gradually awaken through the vehicle of consciousness which it has prepared for in advance.
I am the first to concede that much, if not more, mystery remains. But at least the mystery of our being has been more clearly defined. And at least we know where to look should we want to explore Nature more deeply than a casual glance allows. When one has encountered the Other through the visionary effects of psilocybin, then it becomes quite evident that, whatever its ultimate intent, consciousness is an essential part of the plan.
According to the neo-shamanic view of things running through this book, I think cultural conditions are ripe to re-view Nature or reality as being an ultra-smart, ultra-intelligent process. By doing so, the context by which we live and act out our lives becomes somewhat altered (another feedback effect). If we conceive of reality as a mindless material accident then we will not think twice about ruthlessly exploiting Nature for short term gain and short term profit. Or if we believe Nature can only be understood by tearing it to pieces and examining the smallest fragments, then we shall not divine the greater picture.
If, on the other hand, we embrace the ideas outlined in this book, then our view of Nature begins to change, and we might come to respect the Earth in the same way as aboriginal peoples. Of course, it is not necessary to entertain all the ideas in this book in order to be environmentally conscientious. It is rather the case that should Natural Intelligence be real, then we would do well to refrain from breaking harmony with its flow. If we veer too far from the destination of Nature's intent, then we will run the risk of being abandoned by the great system which birthed us.
Not that I really think such a thing could come to pass. Too much natural concerted effort has been invested in hominid brain evolution for Homo sapiens to be crushed because of our currently dangerous habits, although natural homeostatic forms of population restriction are a distinct possibility. One cannot overestimate the power of Natural Intelligence. It is not like evolution is an old car which could splutter and give out all of a sudden. If the progress of the Universal Computation were that frail, then it would surely have faded long ago.
It might be that the severe environmental crises our species has set in motion of late are a kind of violent prelude to the cultural changes and transformation of the scientific world view which lie ahead. Indeed, our global disruptions of the biosphere obviously serve to make us reflect upon our important causal role within the web of life. When weather systems run riot around us, when otherwise unchanging ice-caps begin to melt, when entire lakes and oceans become spoiled by pollution, when an estimated 3 species per hour become extinct due to our oft-belligerent presence, when acid rain ruins forests and crops, when fires burn uncontrollably in tropical areas where the land has been decimated by farmers pandering to the West's greed, and when primarily profit-motivated faceless biotech conglomerates cause unforeseen ecological disruptions, then it is evident that our species is not a passive spectator of Nature. Rather we actively influence its progress at every moment.
As Fritjof Capra has remarked in The Turning Point, the Chinese written character for 'crisis' contains two elements - danger and opportunity. Which implies that we now have an opportunity to make a change for the better. We can learn from our mistakes, respond to them, as if they were parts of a global enzyme coded into the historical process (enzymes facilitate reactions). For through acknowledging our devastational impact upon Nature, we must perforce reappraise our relationship to the Earth. In so doing we dimly perceive that we are bound to Gaia as much as Gaia is bound to us. Moreover, until we fully realise our purpose at the hands of Natural Intelligence, it seems doubtful that we will be fulfilling our true role within its magnificent scheme.
I would like to believe that as we move into the third millennium, the realisation of our true purpose will become evermore apparent. Which is to say that the old worn chestnut "what's the meaning of life?" will be realised as the elusive meaning continues to unfold. In fact, if what I have written of bears any truth, then such a realisation will be inevitable. Perhaps others will explore Nature's wild entheogenic flora and fungi and reach the same conclusions as have I. Or perhaps scientists will begin to discuss more those aspects of reality which have conspired to facilitate a self-conscious Universe, and thence conclude that our Universe really is of profound significance, especially the presence of consciousness. And if science should come to accept that everything is made of information, including of course consciousness, then perhaps science will also see that this information is becoming evermore integrated through the intent of Natural Intelligence which bears the Universal Computation within itself.
Our unusual quest is now over. We set out to uncover the essential face of Nature and discovered that, as a naturally evolved conscious species, we are caught up in a rapidly accelerating information processing computation that is all the Universe and whose leading edge is partly focused here on Earth, particularly within our conscious perception and within our digital telecommunicational culture. This unfolding process would appear to be impressively smart and directed toward some culmination point, a point which is woven or coded like DNA into the present. Only the future can reveal the truth of these bold psilocybin-driven assertions. In the anticipatory meantime we can do no more than contemplate the issues and ideas raised and hope for the best. May the sacred wisdom of Great Nature be with you always and everywhere.