does the universe need to know itself? is there something inherent in
matter that wants to be conscious of itself, understand itself?

as you all know, intelligent design is in the news. i don't buy it. i
think it's interesting speculation at best. also, the idea of some
super intelligence designing the universe seems totally farfetched.

but, i have another speculative theory. i don't claim that it is
science and it's most certainly caca. but, here goes anyway.

while i don't believe in some super intelligence that governs the
universe--like the higher beings in 2001--, maybe there is something
'asleep' or latent in matter that 'wants' to wake up to self-awareness
and consciousness. it's not something conscious or intentional. it's
latent and 'asleep' yet there is some kind of dynamic that wants to
awaken. it's like a seed. it waits dormantly. but under the right
conditions, it 'wants' to sprout and grow and sprout into a flower.

when we discuss life, we know there is a lifeforce. a force that
animates all life to live, survive, reproduce, and be fruitful--except
for fruitcakes.
evolution makes no sense without taking this force into consideration.
why does life have such tenacious desire to live, to survive, devour
other life forms to achieve supremacy, to grow more sophisticated?
this is explained in terms of random mutation and natural selection.
true, by why is there a lifeforce to begin with? from the very
beginning, the humblest lifeforms were not humble but fierce. they
wanted to survive, duplicate, and grow. and over time, they grew and
grew into greater sophistication and complexity.
and, we can explain the why. it was to the advantage of the lifeform to
evolve to higher forms to survive better. so evolution serves the
life force. no life force, no evolution. life wants to survive at all
cost, even at the cost of evolving slowly into new and totally
different lifeforms.

now, let's look at the cosmos itself. we can also talk of the
evolution of the cosmos. this is not the same as evolution of life but
there are natural laws governing the cosmos. there is force in the core
of every atom. all matter is energy. it 'wants' to do what it is
supposed to do, as lifeforce 'wants' to do what it's supposed to do.
yet, one wonders why life grew out of matter. think about it. we
explain evolution in terms of necessity to survive. but, the universe
doesn't need life to survive or go on or whatever. even if not a
single lifeform developed on a planet, the cosmos would just go on,
business as usual. the sun and other stars and planets and comets and
asteroids and stardust and blackholes and quasars don't give a *****
about whether some planet has life or not. indeed, life is useless to
the universe. it's piddlydink *****, totally irrelevant, totally
purposeless in the whole scheme of things. the big bang didn't happen
cuz of life. and the expansion of the universe has nothing to do with
life. the birth and death of stars and galaxies have nothing to do with
life. so, why did matter produce life? what is the purpose of life?
what is the necessity of life to the universe? does the sun care if
bunch of tribes on one of its planets create civillization or not? of
course, it's misleading to say it does NOT care. the sun is not
conscious at all so it's neither a case of caring or not caring. still,
what is the purpose of life to the rest of the universe? it's zero.

so, what is the 'purpose' of life? why did stardust have the potential
to turn into life under certain conditions and evolve into
consciousness?
this is a bogus romantic view of the universe but could one perhaps say
there is something hidden deep within matter that 'wanted' to know
itself? it was certainly not conscious. not even subconscious. not
even subsubsubsubconscious. but, could it have been
subatomic'conscious'? not in the psychological sense but in some crazy
sense we cannot fathom?

of course, the most likely explanation is matter just happens to be
like that. and, life is an accident of the nature of the cosmos. out of
countless permutations possible within matter itself, life just happen
to a byproduct on certain planets. but, it's still seems so pointless
and useless to the universe as a whole. it has zero impact on the
movement of stars or expansion of the universe. matter doesn't have to
know itself to carry on its cosmic mission just as snow doesn't have to
know it's snow to fall or melt.

indeed, if there was any justice to the universe, the suns and stars
should be conscious. a sun is very powerful with all that heat and
such. you could probably roast a 100 billion chickens with a single
flare of the sun. the energy possessed by man or any living
form--including the giant blue whale--is piddly dink compared to the
energy of the sun. yet, the sun doesn't know itself. yet we
piddlydinks know not only ourselves but the universe. we know the sun
but the sun doesn't know us. yet, it's the energy of the sun that
makes us possible. so could we be extension of the sun's latent need to
know itself? or for that matter, the cosmos's latent need to know
itself.
suppose a cosmos went BANG and was born--as ours did--and collapsed 20
billion yrs from now; and during its span of existence, not a single
lifeform existed anywhere in it. it would still have gone thru the
usual cycle of cosmic growth just the same; but, it wouldn't have known
itself or whatever it was about. yet, it's because we exist--and we
are part of the cosmos--the cosmos knows itself. we are the part of the
cosmos that knows the cosmos. so, while we are piddlydinkish in terms
of size and scale--just a dust adrift in the universe--we are in some
ways, more powerful than the mightiest suns cuz we are the part of the
cosmos that knows itself and knows the suns. so, in a way, while the
sun warms our ***** and does us a favor, we do the sun a favor by knowing
what it's about. the sun doesn't know we are doing this favor but,
again, if we see ourselves as the extension of the sun(made from
stardust), then we are part of the sun, sort of. we are the part of the
sun that knows itself. we are the ash-ghosts of the sun that has to
come to know our maker and beyond.

suppose there's a giant megatree that rises high into the sky. it
doesn't know itself. but, let's say in the shade of the tree on the
ground, there are microscopic fungi that is piddlydink but conscious.
how odd that the mighty tree isn't conscious but the pathetic dinky
fungi are conscious. if there's justice, it should be the other way
around, but oh well. anyway, if we ponder the relationship, they are
complementary. the fungi is delicate and can only live in the damp
shade under the tree on the ground. the tree is mighty and tall. but
it's 'asleep'. it's the fungi that is 'awake' and knows of itself and
even the tree. so, while the tree doesn't know itself, if we see the
fungi as the extension of the tree, then the tree knows itself thru the
fungi. and the tree makes the fungi possible by providing nutrients and
shade.

in this sense. the cosmos knows itself thru us. instead of seeing
ourselves as something separate from the stars and such, we are the
extension of everything. we are the ultimate point of cosmic existence.
we are the manifestation of the latent 'desire' within matter to come
to know itself.
so, we are not only aware of and for ourselves but of and for the whole
universe. we represent not only planet earth but every star of the
universe. when we see the stars in the sky, they are mighty and super
while we are piddlydink. but, the stars need us to know that they
exist. they don't know that they exist but we know that they exist. and
since we are the product of stardust, we are, in a way, consciousness
of the entire cosmos. it's like how the brahmin of hinduism claimed to
know the secrets of the gods and the cosmos. the cosmos may be mighty
but it is asleep. the stars may burn brightly but it is asleep. but
piddlydink man knows what even the great sleeping gods and stars don't
know.
it's like in excalibur, arthur brings merlin back to life thru his
dreams. merlin, fallen into slumber, gains consciousness thru arthur.

the earth exists in the dark shade of the cosmos like fungi exist in
the dark cool shade of trees. and like the imaginary fungi i mentioned
above, it is us, in the cool shade of the cosmos, that knows of the
secrets of the stars and galaxies.
our knowledge may be irrelevant in the physical way of things.. the
cosmic development will go on as it always has whether life exists or
not. a cosmos with billion life forms and a cosmos with no life forms
is the same. stars don't obey us, and nothing we can do can alter the
development of the cosmos. so, we don't play an active role in the way
of the cosmos. yet, it is thru us that the cosmos knows itself. so,
maybe there is something in matter that always wanted to know itself.
it's not intelligent design but the subcosmic urge.