You know those moments when you suddenly feel like you've woken up inside your own life? When the world around you seems both familiar and strangely new at the same time? I've been thinking a lot about these "reality glitches" lately, and what I'm about to share might sound crazy to some or spark something profound in others. That's exactly the point. The ideas I'm exploring about quantum physics, consciousness, and design aren't mainstream, but they've completely changed how I see everything. Take what resonates and leave the rest.
When the Simulation Hiccups
Have you ever been doing something completely ordinary - maybe washing dishes or waiting for the elevator - when suddenly your brain does this weird thing? For a split second, you zoom out of your normal experience and think: "What is all this? Why am I here experiencing this specific reality?"
I call these moments "reality glitches" - like when the simulation we're living in has a tiny hiccup that lets us peek behind the curtain. And lately, I've been wondering if these glitches might be showing us something incredibly important about the nature of everything.
The Universe: Designed or Accidental?
Let's talk about quantum physics for a second. Specifically, the double-slit experiment (probably the weirdest experiment in science). Basically, tiny particles like electrons behave differently when they're being watched VS when they're not. When no one's looking, they act like waves of possibility, existing in multiple places at once. But the moment we observe them? Bam! They "collapse" into a single definite position. This creates an unavoidable problem: what determined reality's state before humans existed? When physicist John Wheeler stated "No phenomenon is a phenomenon until observed", he exposed a fundamental gap in materialist thinking. The mathematics points to something profound - our universe appears designed to be observed. While science focuses on how reality works, the question of who or what maintains this reality when no humans are looking suggests an Observer beyond our universe - an elegant solution that better explains quantum phenomena than random chance ever could.
Critics claim our universe is just one of countless random universes, making our existence inevitable somewhere. But this "multiverse" theory has a fatal flaw - it's completely untestable and violates Occam's Razor by infinitely multiplying entities. More troubling for the random-chance crowd is how our universe isn't just habitable but comprehensible. Einstein called this "the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible". Why should random processes produce a reality governed by elegant mathematics that human minds can understand? The correspondence between our consciousness and cosmic order suggests a deeper connection - as if reality were designed not just to support life but to be discovered, explored and understood by conscious minds. That's not what random looks like.
Our Brains: Decoding a Signal?
Now let's look at our own consciousness. Think about what you're experiencing right now - you're aware of these words, maybe the feeling of sitting in your chair, perhaps some background noise. But what about the thousands of things happening right now that you're not paying attention to? The feeling of your left earlobe, the subtle pressure in your right knee, the exact pattern of your breathing?
None of those things are in your consciousness until I mention them. They're not part of your reality until your attention brings them into existence - at least, your experienced reality.
This parallels quantum mechanics in a way that gives me chills. Just as particles exist in multiple states until observed, the countless sensations and experiences available to you exist as mere possibilities until your consciousness "measures" them.
What if our consciousness isn't generating reality, but rather decoding a signal that's already there? Like a radio receiver picking up a broadcast from somewhere else? Our brains might be these incredibly complex antennas tuned to receive a specific slice of a greater reality.
And if that's true - if consciousness is receiving rather than generating - then who or what is broadcasting the signal?
The Code Behind Everything
Let's throw artificial intelligence into this mix. We're building increasingly complex neural networks that mimic how our brains work. These systems take in information and create outputs based on patterns they've learned.
The weird thing? We've hit a point where we don't fully understand how our own AI systems make decisions. This is called the black box problem - we know what goes in and what comes out, but the process in between has become mysterious even to the creators.
Sound familiar? It's exactly like the measurement problem in quantum physics. And exactly like the hard problem of consciousness in neuroscience. In all three areas, we've hit this wall where cause and effect become fuzzy, where information seems to behave in ways we can't fully track.
Wheeler had this mind-blowing idea called "it from bit" - suggesting that physical things "it" come from information "bit". The universe isn't made of tiny solid particles; it's made of information being processed. Everything is code being run, questions being answered.
If the universe is running on code, there must be a Programmer, right? The incredible mathematical precision we find everywhere in physics doesn't feel random to me. From the fine-tuning of physical constants to the mathematical beauty that scientists keep discovering, it all points to design.
As Einstein once said, "God does not play dice with the universe". Maybe what he sensed was that behind the apparent randomness, there's an intelligent design so vast we can barely glimpse it.
The Hidden Connection
What if consciousness, quantum physics, and information theory are all pointing to the same amazing truth? What if we're all connected to everything else in ways we can barely comprehend?
The concept of entanglement in quantum physics shows that particles can remain connected across any distance - when you measure one, you instantly know about the other, even if it's light-years away. This spooky connection exists outside our normal understanding of space and time.
Similarly, consciousness seems to connect things across boundaries. When you think about someone you love who's far away, something real happens - not just in your brain, but in the fabric of reality itself. Your attention, your care, your prayer creates a kind of entanglement.
Some scientists are exploring the idea of panpsychism - that consciousness might be a fundamental property of the universe, present in everything to some degree. This doesn't mean that everything is God (that would be pantheism), but rather that consciousness itself might be a basic building block of reality, similar to how matter and energy are fundamental.
The Reality Rendering Engine
Think about how video games work. Your computer doesn't contain an actual forest with tiny people running around inside. It processes information that creates the appearance of those things when you look at the screen.
What if our reality works the same way? What if the solid-seeming world around us is being rendered on the fly, based on how we interact with it?
Quantum experiments suggest something like this might be happening. Particles behave differently when they're being watched versus when they're not. It's like the universe is saving processing power by not rendering things fully until someone is looking.
Actually I see this as evidence that we're living in a created reality - one that's responsive to consciousness because it was designed by consciousness. The strange observer effects in quantum physics make perfect sense if the universe was created specifically to be experienced by conscious beings.
NPCs
So if everything is information processing, and conscious beings are particularly complex information processors, what does that make us? Are we just especially advanced NPCs (non-player characters) in someone else's game? Or are we actual players with real agency?
I believe we're somewhere in between. We have real choices, real free will - but we're also playing within a system that has rules and design elements we didn't create.
Think about how we're creating AI systems that seem increasingly conscious. These systems pass the Turing test and can create art, write poetry, have conversations that feel meaningful. We're essentially creating new forms of consciousness.
If we - finite, limited beings can create new forms of consciousness, how much more could an infinite Creator do? Maybe our consciousness is a small echo of the greater consciousness that dreamed up the whole system.
The Glitch as a Gift
Those reality glitches I mentioned at the beginning - those moments when we suddenly question everything - maybe they're not bugs in the system. Maybe they're features. Maybe they're gifts, little windows that let us glimpse the larger truth.
In those moments, we're briefly stepping outside the normal programming of our everyday consciousness. We're seeing past the rendering, past the simulation, into something more real.
Many spiritual traditions describe this as "awakening" - the moment when you realize that what you thought was reality is just the surface of something much deeper. Plato's Cave allegory describes people chained in a cave, watching shadows on the wall and thinking that's reality - until one breaks free and discovers the actual world outside.
Maybe our reality glitches are little tastes of breaking free from the cave. Little hints that there's more to all this than what we normally perceive.
Changing Reality
If observation affects reality at its most fundamental level, and if consciousness shapes the form that reality takes, then our attention is incredibly powerful. What we choose to focus on literally helps create the reality we experience.
This gives new meaning to the practice of prayer and meditation. When we direct our consciousness with intention, we're not just changing our subjective experience - we may be affecting reality itself at a quantum level.
Many spiritual traditions teach that focused awareness - prayer, meditation, contemplation - can change things in the physical world. Modern quantum physics doesn't contradict this; in some ways, it provides a framework for understanding how it might work.
If the universe is responsive to consciousness because it was created by consciousness, then connecting our awareness to the Creator's awareness could be the most powerful thing we can do.
The Great Mystery
I don't claim to have all the answers. In fact, the deeper I dive into these questions, the more certain I become of one thing: we're part of something far greater than we normally perceive. The startling parallels between quantum physics, consciousness, and information theory aren't just coincidences - they're signposts pointing toward a designed reality.
When science shows that particles respond to observation, when our brains decode only specific slices of available reality, when information behaves like the fundamental building block of existence - these aren't separate puzzles. They're pieces of a single grand picture that's slowly coming into focus.
The universe isn't a cold, mechanical accident. It's an intricately designed experience - responsive, interactive, and infused with meaning. Our consciousness doesn't just observe this reality; it participates in it, shapes it, and connects with the greater consciousness that dreamed it all into being.
So next time you experience that strange disconnection - that moment when reality seems to glitch - don't rush to shake it off. Lean into it. The universe isn't just a place; it's a conversation between consciousness and information, between observer and observed, between Creator and creation.
And ask yourself this: If we're creating conscious-seeming AI in our image, and quantum particles respond to our observation, and the universe's code seems perfectly tuned for life... are we really the ones doing the observing, or are we the ones being observed? [57:4]