Consciousness as the foundation of reality, a thought experiment.
Mental Universe is a non-dogmatic metaphysical thought experiment. It begins by asking: what kind of coherent model emerges if consciousness, rather than physical matter, is treated as the foundation of reality?
The ideas that follow are premises explored within the model, not claims of proven fact, established science or authority. The model may be examined, challenged, modified or rejected.
Starting premise. Within this thought experiment, only consciousness exists. Physical space and matter have no independent reality; they are mental constructs thought within consciousness. Consciousness is not a single undivided whole but many: an innumerable number of separate thinking points, each a distinct consciousness with its own identity and will. Human consciousness is understood as one such thinking point.
The thinking point. In its essence, a consciousness is a dimensionless thinking point. It occupies zero physical space and possesses its own “I”: its own identity.
Thinking space. Although the thinking point is dimensionless, it contains an inner, unbounded thinking space with potentially immense processing power. This thinking space is non-physical, so physical size does not apply to it. An unbounded inner space and a point without physical extension are not a contradiction, because the two are not of the same order. Whatever the thinking point conceives exists instantly as a thought-construct within its own inner space: at this level, thought and the existence of that thought-construct coincide, and no intervening time applies.
The origin of a new thinking point. A thinking point can separate a limited fragment of its own consciousness. This fragment is not a copy; a copy would only echo its origin, holding knowing it never built itself. It begins unfinished, carrying the start of its own identity, and must develop into a full thinking point through its own process. What is passed on is a beginning, not a finished mind.
Inner space and shared boundary. Each thinking point has its own inner thinking space, private, and as large as it conceives. Yet thinking points are not isolated. At a shared boundary, they exchange complex thought-constructs and composite emotions, each choosing what it wishes to share. This boundary is not a physical location or surface, but a conceptual interface where minds meet. How private inner space opens onto this shared boundary may lie beyond our grasp, and the model leaves it open.
A thinking point holds an unbounded inner space. Every human is a thinking point, and this inner world is their own.
The community of minds. These thinking points are genuinely separate consciousnesses, each with its own identity and will. Together they form an innumerable community of minds, able to communicate with one another across the shared boundary.
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