Our Place in the Universe
From the universe, we emerged, as a part of it. With it came the capacity to create a mental model of the universe itself.
Our bodies, our physical selves and their properties, define the basic nature of the mental world model that we experience. They also determine which information about the universe we can gather in the first place. Our limited selves therefore receive only limited information, from the whole that is out there. The best way to describe this situation is as a limited informational model of the whole that exists.
Based on this information we then imagine the world around us. This is how we “build” everything we experience: we take in a stream of information and, through imagination, create a coherent whole in our minds. This mental model is the whole of our experience.
Our mental model defines our freedom, within it we can act freely. Yet the same model restricts us because it limits our experience of the universe as a whole.
The model evolves and adapts so we can get what we need and want, avoid danger, eat, reproduce, feel love, etc. We can also drive its evolution ourselves by actively learning. New information is the only path to discovering anything new about the universe. We either learn directly or invent tools unlike ourselves that can gather different information, which we can then absorb.
In brief, I’m putting needs and wants at the centre of my line of reasoning. Imagination is what lets us create an experienced world. Understanding is finding patterns and explanations within this imagined whole. A well working body and brain let us imagine a more accurate world, spot those patterns, and act in ways that meet our needs and wants. Since our entire experience is this mental model, we must think of the universe at the most fundamental level as information, information we have and information we don’t have.