The Three Biggest Questions

My three biggest question are:

1. Why is there something rather than nothing?

In our experience, nothing happens without being caused by something else that happened before it. The universe seems to have come about. But the space-time fabric is part of that universe and came about in the big bang.

There was no time before the big bang in which anything could have happened to cause the big bang. So why did it happen?

One resolution to this lies in the theory of eternal inflation, considered feasible by many scientists. In this theory, a bigger universe (I'll call it an omniverse) exists and bubbles in the omniverse expand into universes like the one we are part of. The omniverse could always have existed, so no initial cause would be necessary.

But this isn't an answer to the question. We still don't know why the omniverse exists. The omniverse could have always existed or it could conceivably not have existed. The question still remains: 'Why does it exist'?

Another well-worn answer to the question is 'There is something because God made it.' But this then begs the question 'Why is there God?' and, as God is something, the question 'Why is there something?' still hasn't been answered. Answering the question this way is like answering the question 'Why is there life on Earth?' by saying 'Because the previous generation gave birth to it.' And saying God is eternal still doesn't tell us why he exists. It would be quite conceivable for him not to exist - and many believe that to be the case.

As space-time is a property of our universe (and maybe the omniverse), even eternity seems to be something - something that could theoretically exist or not exist.

This question is considered further in the PowerPoint Why is there something?

2. How does consciousness arise?

Consciousness is hard to define except in terms of itself or words that basically mean the same thing, like 'awareness'. But we all know what it is, so, in a sense, it doesn't really need to be defined.

If we assume that we don't have souls but are just bunches of atoms, then the most wdely accepted idea is that consciousness arises from the electrical activity of our brains, maybe along with some quantum effects.

But intuitively, it is hard to conceive of how these physical processes can give rise to something that seems so un-physical, so totally different. If the same electrical activity occurred in a machine, would it be conscious?

Even if we assume that we do have a soul and say that consciousness lies in the soul, we still haven't explained how it comes about: we've just sidestepped the question.

The other thing about consciousness is that I know I have it, but I cannot observe it in anyone else to know that they have it. I assume that they do because they look and act like me, so therefore probably have consciousness like me. But then we are starting to make robots that look and act like me, and I'm not sure whether the same conclusion can be drawn about them. There seems to be no way of knowing.

This question is explored further in the article Consciousness

3. What does it mean to be Me?

At first glance, this seems to be a question that we all know the answer to, even if it's hard to put it into words.

But suppose we had the technology to slice Stephanie's brain, scan all the neurons and synapses, and replicate them with functionally identical silicon components interconnected in the same way as her brain.

If the motor output is fed to a computer which then feeds suitably calculated sensory input back to her, the silicon version of Stephanie could live in a virtual world which should seem just like the real world. The question is, does Stephanie's life continue, or does Stephanie die and a new person get created?

Many people will say that Stephanie dies, even if the new person has its own consciousness and Stephanie's memories. But the new person is much more like Stephanie than the 25-year-old Spephanie is like the 5-year-old Stephanie. Has the 5-year-old Stephanie died and been replaced by the 25-year-old Stephanie? Some people will even say that we all die when we go to sleep at night and a new person wakes up in the morning.

This issue is looked at in more depth in the article Identity.