The Larger Conscious System

 

I have listened to Tom Campbell plenty. I’ve heard a lot about his Big TOE (Theory of everything). I don’t think Campbell is all wrong; I just think he has missed a few of the most important elements. He says that the reason The Larger Consciousness uses avatars is so that it can learn and grow. He says that we are only here to learn and to grow. In this statement, it is obvious to me that Campbell himself has a lot to learn. I am surer of a more fundamental property of The Larger Conscious System: Love.

Truly, leaving love out of the initial startup and replay of everything is to miss the whole point; even if only slightly, as in Tom Campbell’s case. I can even point to my own tests in the real world; in real time. I don’t have to go far to show you an example of an ever-swelling information system where learning and growing are both ongoing, while quality is not improving; it is called The Internet. If there ever was an example of a larger, collective conscious system, it would be the internet. Especially if you really want to stick to your guns and make that bold and yet ridiculous claim that information is the soil, as well as the atmosphere, where avatars are born, developed and grown. As far as I know, the internet, while growing exponentially, has yet to deliver a single, “information-baby”.

Now I will concede that Campbell could be right; provided information is really all that matters. If Tom Campbell has finally found the true definition and explanation of consciousness, and if it is truly just an ever expanding database, filled with nothing more than information, then all is well. I can add and subtract and I can tune up an old car, I can ride a lawn mower and a few other things; heck, I can even play a guitar. So you might say that the avatar I am presently playing has yielded some data to the overall system. If, in the future, when I choose a next generation avatar, it will know mowers and guitars; even if that avatar happens to be an idiot-savant who doesn’t gain access to the information which would allow him to tie his own shoes. In Campbell’s view, our avatars will just increase in their capacity, potential and probability. And of course, there is evidence of this. Each generation of our species seems to show higher degrees of learning. So each human, info-baby should be better equipped to grow in knowledge than any previous info-starved avatar which came before.

Tom isn’t wrong concerning the obviousness of evolution. Even within the species, you can consider a car built in the 1950’s as compared to one built in 2023 and you can see that an accumulation of information has led to the manufacturing of cars with many more features, more luxury, more maneuverability, a better ride and more comfort. This is simple, mechanical evolution. This clearly demonstrates the value of information as it relates to selections. At some point, it made more sense to select fuel injection and electronic ignition; leaving carburation and point-ignition behind forever. And, truly, if we stop right here, then Tom Campbell’s Theory of Everything holds up.

The only thing Tom Campbell fails to explain with his theory is why I feel more joy and happiness when I am in the presence of a 1957 Chevy, than I do when I am in the presence of any modern car. In this case, the information is shown to grow in the future, while attachments to the past reveal an entanglement of value beyond data. I’m not particularly attached to the knowledge that went into the making of a ’57 Chevy; I am attached to everything about 1957, by fractals of Love, extending from then until now.

A failure to identify Love as the most fundamental characteristic of any model of The Great Conscious System, is to miss the truest nature of reality miserably. To claim that love known by avatars stalls upon death, while information accumulates, is to focus entirely on learning while forgetting how one felt.

“Avatars do not exist!” Campbell loves to suggest. He does have a decent case. However, to suggest that The Larger Consciousness is only interested in avatars as information gatherers is to suggest that education is the only area of growth with any value. And that would make the internet more valuable than any individual you know. And that is the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard of.