Irreducible

Many (most?) astrologers know that their astrology ‘works’. It provides them with valuable insight into their lives or the outside world. They may not be particularly interested in ‘how’ this works.

Scientists and technologists, on the other hand, are very much concerned with how things work, and tend to be rather sceptical of astrology. Having been trained in a paradigm where everything is objective and value-free, this is not surprising. They aim to produce mathematical models of the phenomena they seek to understand, even suggesting sometimes that they are actually describing reality.

Those scientists who have got into the depths of quantum theory tend to have a more qualified viewpoint, as ultimately material phenomena cannot be accurately modelled without strange probabilities and uncertainties, which seem to come back to the subjective motivations of the scientist themself.

One such scientist and technologist is Federico Faggin, creator of key technologies of the computer age, such as microprocessors and silicon gate technology. Just like many of the pioneers of quantum mechanics, Faggin has concluded that the materialistic model of science cannot in the end explain any of those things that really matter – such as life and consciousness. He has concluded that nature’s deepest and most fundamental level is that of consciousness as a quantum phenomenon. The classical Cartesian description of a material world is just an attempt to mathematically model this difficult-to-comprehend reality.

Faggin’s recent book ‘Irreducible’ considers this at an understandable level, suggesting that reality evolves through consciousness, and in a sense through the free will of its ‘component’ entities. This ultimately brings into play the fundamental centres of the human being – head, heart and gut and points the direction towards morality and spirituality, rather than the relatively arid world of materialism and political/economic systems of self interest.

What has this to do with astrology? Nothing, directly. But this is surely a philosophical framework, a way of looking at the world, that is not inconsistent with the practice of astrology and psychological development/evolution. It is a welcome move by a leading technology thinker beyond the sterile insistence of the materialists that claim to understand the world by just looking under an ‘objective’ lamp post, because that is where they can see more easily – rather than forage in the surrounding ‘subjective’ dark where the true keys to life are to be found.

Featured image was generated by AI.