Prologue: A Dialogue on “What Is Consciousness?”
“What is consciousness?”
We have asked this question for millennia. We’ve built the most powerful microscopes to examine neurons, written the most complex equations to describe the physical world, and yet we still cannot answer: where is the “I” that is doing all the seeing?
Materialism says consciousness is a product of matter. But when we dissect the brain down to gray and white matter, the “I” disappears—like taking apart a computer and finding silicon, copper, and plastic, but not the operating system that was running.
Idealism says consciousness is a mental substance. But when we try to locate it in the physical world, it slips away like a ghost—you cannot weigh a thought, you cannot measure the length of a memory.
This debate has been trapped in an ancient misconception: we assume that existence comes in only one form.
But what if the universe is not one?
Chapter 1: The Material Universe and the Information Universe — Two Real Dimensions
We intuitively perceive one world: mountains, rivers, tables, our own bodies. This is the Material Universe. It has mass, energy, and obeys physical laws. We call it “objective reality.”
But we also intuitively perceive another world: memories, emotions, imagination, meaning. This is the Information Universe. It has no mass, no energy, yet it is no less real—your pain is real, your love is real, the image that appears in your mind as you read these words is real.
These two universes are the two dimensions we directly experience. How are they connected? Through our senses.
The eyes are photon catchers of the material universe. The ears are sound wave detectors. The skin is a pressure sensor. These organs translate changes in the material world into forms the information universe can process.
All of life’s activities can be reduced to two things:
- Maintaining this connection — eating, breathing, sleeping—all to keep the material body, this “translator,” functioning.
- Translating the material world into information and storing it in the information universe — seeing, hearing, learning, remembering—all of this transforms data from the material universe into content for the information universe.
This is why a newborn has no self-awareness. The material foundation (the brain) is there, and the most basic consciousness is there (feeling warmth, hunger, discomfort). But the information universe is empty. Like a brand-new hard drive: the hardware is fine, but there’s no data.
Chapter 2: The “Matter” of the Information Universe — Memory, Consensus, History
If the information universe is real, what is it made of?
Memory is the fundamental unit of the information universe. Just as the material universe is composed of atoms, the information universe is composed of memories. Each memory is a node of information. Your entire inner world is a network woven from countless memory nodes.
Think of it like your personal website on the internet. The website has no physical form, but it is real—others can visit it, read your story, feel your presence.
Consensus is the interconnection of memory nodes. When I have a memory of a stone, and you have a memory of the same stone, and we talk about it and confirm its existence—that stone transforms in the information universe from an “isolated island” into a “network node.” Consensus is the “infrastructure” of the information universe.
This is why scientific facts, monetary value, and social norms are so powerful—not because they are “just so,” but because they have established stable interconnections within countless information networks.
History is the result of transferring the material world into the information world. In the material universe, time cannot be reversed. You can return to yesterday’s location, but yesterday’s scene is gone. But in the information universe, history can be preserved—through writing, images, memory.
This is why we can never “go back in time” in the material world—time in that dimension is one-way. But in the dimension of the information universe, we can revisit the past again and again. Every act of recollection is a “time travel,” just one that happens within the information dimension.
Chapter 3: The Self — An Emergence in the Information Universe
What is the self? It is not a simple sum of memories. It is a “center” that emerges from memories in the information universe.
This process is like the birth of the material universe—it does not happen at a precise moment, but unfolds over time.
Every infant repeats this process:
- At first, its information world is chaotic. Only sensations, no “I.”
- It begins to receive information: light, sound, touch.
- It begins to establish nodes: mother’s face, the shape of a bottle, its own hand.
- At some point—usually when it can distinguish “mother”—these nodes begin to coalesce around a single center.
The Other defines the self.
When the infant realizes “mother is not an extension of me,” the boundary of the “I” is born. This boundary is the first “horizon” in the information universe. From that moment on, all information begins to organize itself around this “I.”
This is why self-awareness is not innate but grows. It requires two conditions:
- Development of the material foundation (the brain)
- Continuous intake of information (experience)
Those with a “fuzzy” sense of self often suffered from insufficient information intake at a critical stage—not an intellectual problem, but malnourishment of consciousness. Like a garden without water, it cannot grow clear outlines.
Chapter 4: The Relationship Between Memory and Self — “I” Is My “Interface”
Are “I” and “my memories” the same thing?
No.
The “I” is the interface of the information universe—the “eye” that reads the memories.
Memory is the body of the information universe—the stored, retrievable nodes of information.
It’s like browsing a website: the browser window (the self) is not the webpage content (memory), but without the webpage content, the browser is just an empty shell.
This is why amnesiacs still have a sense of self. They may not remember their own name, but they still “know” they are feeling. The “interface” is still running, even though the “body” is damaged.
Chapter 5: Consciousness and Information — The Container and the Content
We often say “consciousness processes information.” But this phrase contains two distinct things:
Information is encoded, storable, transmissible content. It is the “matter” of the information universe. Like a stone in the material universe, it can be moved, transformed, destroyed.
Consciousness is the container and factory of information. It is not information itself, but the field within which information can be “conscious.”
An analogy:
- Information = Data
- Consciousness = The running operating system + CPU
Data can be stored, copied, deleted. But the operating system itself is not data—it is the thing that processes the data.
This is why consciousness cannot be “quantified.” Quantification is a concept of the material world. You can quantify memory (how many bytes are stored), but you cannot quantify the act of “remembering” itself.
Chapter 6: Consciousness — The Information Universe Itself
Now we can answer the core question: What is consciousness, really?
Consciousness is not matter.
Consciousness is not information.
Consciousness is the information universe itself.
Just as “space” is not matter, but the container within which matter exists;
just as “time” is not matter, but the dimension within which change occurs—
Consciousness is the dimension within which information exists.
The material universe has its container: space-time.
The information universe has its container: consciousness.
The material universe has its content: matter and energy.
The information universe has its content: memory, emotion, meaning.
This is why we cannot find consciousness within the material world—just as you cannot find “space” on a painted canvas. The canvas has pigments and lines, but “space” is the relationship between these elements, the framework within which they are perceived.
Consciousness is that framework.
Chapter 7: Death — The Disconnection of Information Nodes and the “Shutdown” of Consciousness
In the material universe, death is the dissolution of the body.
In the information universe, what does it mean?
Death is the disconnection of information nodes.
Your material body is the “hardware” of your information universe. Your memories are the “data” stored on that hardware. Your consciousness is the “operating system” running on that hardware.
When the hardware breaks down:
- The operating system stops running (consciousness disappears)
- The data loses its substrate (memories dissipate)
Interestingly, matter in the material universe is cyclical: forms change, but the total amount of matter remains constant.
But what about information?
Information has a harsh characteristic: it must be “conscious” to exist.
A stone deep in the mountains, unseen by anyone—it exists in the material universe, but in the information universe, it does not exist. Only when someone sees it does it “come into being” in the information universe.
Likewise, a memory only “lives” when it is accessed by some consciousness. Otherwise, it is merely dormant information, stored. And when the material substrate that stores it disintegrates, that memory disappears entirely from the information universe.
This is why death is so absolute—not because matter disappears, but because the window through which information could be “conscious” is permanently closed.
Chapter 8: Meaning — The “Potential Energy” of the Information Universe
If consciousness is the information universe itself, and memory is its matter, then what is meaning?
Meaning is the potential energy of the information universe.
In the material universe, potential energy is the “capacity to do work” conferred by position—water at a height has potential energy because it can fall and generate power.
In the information universe, potential energy is the “capacity to drive action” conferred by connection—the more nodes a piece of information connects to, and the more important those nodes are, the higher its “meaning potential.”
- A piece of information sitting alone, with no connections—it has no meaning.
- A piece of information connected to many important nodes, capable of driving action and triggering resonance—it has high meaning potential.
The feeling of meaning is your information network telling you: “This node you are connected to right now is worth the journey.”
This is why humans need meaning—without it, your information network dissipates, losing direction and gravity. Meaning is the gravity of the information universe.
More succinctly: Meaning is the vector of information.
Information is not dead, flat. It has direction. Every piece of information points somewhere—toward action, toward emotion, toward other information. When we speak of “finding meaning,” we are in fact searching the information universe for a direction worth investing ourselves in.
Chapter 9: How Consciousness Does “Work” — Material Work vs. Informational Work
Consciousness not only exists within the information universe; it can also do work.
In the material universe, doing work means changing the state of matter—pushing a stone, boiling water.
In the information universe, doing work means changing the state of information:
- Creating new information (imagination, creation)
- Erasing existing information (forgetting)
- Reorganizing relationships between information (thinking, insight)
- Moving information from the personal to the public (expression, sharing)
Emotion is the “tag” of informational work.
Dopamine, endorphins, adrenaline—these material-level chemical signals are traces left behind when the information universe does work. Just as electricity passing through a bulb produces heat—the heat is not the electricity, but it is evidence that the electricity is “doing work.”
Emotion is that heat. It tells you what is happening in your information universe right now.
Chapter 10: From “Self” to “We” — The Interconnection of Information Universes
If every consciousness is an independent information universe, then what is the relationship between “us”?
Information universes are not isolated islands. They are interconnected.
When you and I communicate, we establish a channel between two information universes. My memories can be transmitted to you. Your imagination can influence me.
This is the birth of consensus—two information universes achieving synchronization on a particular node.
This is the birth of culture—countless information universes achieving synchronization on a vast number of nodes.
This is the birth of civilization—a vast, intergenerational information network, a super-individual information universe.
Final Chapter: The Pool
I’ve always had this image in my mind:
People are in a vast swimming pool, only their heads above the water.
The space above the water is the dimension of consciousness—the Information Universe.
The bodies beneath the water are us in the Material Universe.
We cannot describe the “appearance” of consciousness in material terms—just as a fish cannot describe the air. But we all “know” it exists.
If I had to use one word to describe its essence, I would choose: an information-state existence.
The Material Universe. The Information Universe.
Consciousness does work in the material dimension through the body, and does work in the information dimension on information itself.
When the material world changes, it causes a simultaneous perturbation in the information world.
The moment you become aware of a stone, the information of that stone appears in the information universe. At first it exists only in your personal memory. If shared, it becomes a consensus in the memories of all interconnected consciousness.
Forgetting is erasure in the information universe.
Imagination is creation in the information universe.
The Final Answer
So, back to that ancient question—“What is consciousness?”
It is not matter.
It is not energy.
It is not a secretion of the brain.
It is another dimension of the universe.
The material universe has its space-time. The information universe has its “consciousness field.”
We are beings within this field, and also its creators.
We use our senses to connect the two universes.
We use memory to build the “body” of the information world.
We use meaning to navigate the direction of the information universe.
We use interconnection to link isolated islands into continents.
And death? Death is not disappearance—it is a lamp extinguishing in the information universe. But the places that lamp once illuminated, the memories it lit up, the other consciousnesses it touched—these still flicker in the information universe.
This is why we write, why we create, why we love, why we leave traces—
Because in the information universe, we are each other’s light.
Science is the cognitive methodology of the material dimension. It cannot disprove the existence of consciousness, just as it cannot disprove the existence of space—not a limitation of consciousness, but a boundary of science. The existence of consciousness does not require disproof. It is directly confirmed by every conscious being. This is another kind of truth, another kind of knowledge.