Consciousness, information, and living systems.
The possibility of a proactive role for consciousness in the establishment of physical reality has been addressed via an extensive 26-year program investigating physical anomalies in human/machine interactions and non-sensory acquisition of information about remote geographical locations. Empirical databases comprising many hundreds of millions of random events confirm that information can be introduced into, or extracted from, otherwise random physical processes solely through the agencies of human intention and subjective resonance. Much of the evidence mitigates the likelihood that the anomalies are manifestations of neo-cortical cognitive activity. Rather, they may be expressions of a deeper information organizing capacity of biological origin that emerges from the uncertainty inherent in the complexity of all living systems.
Dunne
B J
BJ
C-131 Engineering Quadrangle, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-5263, USA. bjd@princeton.edu
Jahn
R G
RG
D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition; D032882:Comprehension; D003243:Consciousness; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D019369:Life; D010465:Perception; D012649:Self Concept