MacDougall By Eamon. R. S. MacDougall Abstract: P1 Zeno's paradox implies that time is impossible P2 If time did not exist then consciousness would not exist because something (time) must be "moving" in order to produce consciousness in the first place, but since time is impossible this proves to be problematic P3 Time has been in motion forever because, if it was not in motion then consciousness would never have come into being 1 A Solution to Zeno's Paradox as a Derivative for the Ontological proof of Panpsychism MacDougall P4 Consciousness exists, therefore time existed before consciousness or else there would have never been time to produce consciousness P5 Time must precede consciousness or else there would have never been time to produce the illusion of time which would originate from consciousness P6 But time can not precede consciousness because of Zeno's paradox P7 Therefore the motion/time that precedes consciousness (what we call the flow of time) could only possibly exist if it itself is consciousness C1 Therefore the universe must itself be a form of consciousness P8 Consciousness is progressively becoming more aware of everything: spatially and temporally P9 Consciousness in all of its progression of knowledge will eventually arrive at a level of awareness/consciousness of everything that ever was and will be P10 Being conscious of the totality of facts in universe will be no different than the universe itself 2 MacDougall C2 Therefore consciousness gradually becomes the universe itself This is a rough summary of the premises denoted above; it defends the widely contentious claim that consciousness creates time; Secondly, it denies the claim that time creates consciousness, but instead, affirms that the universe itself as a whole, possesses some level of consciousness which provides the medium for the development of secondary entities of consciousness (human existence). This produces it's own consecutive "time", in-itself, along with the universal consciousness, which provides the time for it to generate its own existence (human existence and other conscious entities). This ontological proof is fundamentally grounded in the claim made by Zeno that motion/time is impossible, since all material must be fixed and immobile, rather than being infinitely divisible. The final denouement of this article affirms the existence of universal consciousness, but not one that would be depicted by contemporary theologians. The conclusion, purports that a kind of god is produced both at the beginning and at the end of time (Human or trans-humanistic consciousness). The latter, being produced within the former, and that the resultant is a a literal 3 MacDougall Being In-Itself, and that this is the ontological proof that the universe possesses consciousness independent of human existence. Does Consciousness produce time or does time produce consciousness? This questions forces one to examine the definition of consciousness, but for the purpose of this article I will consider one fundamental characteristic of consciousness: the ability to formulate thoughts. This may be a rather undeveloped and rudimentary concept of consciousness, but if we consider this from the empirical perspective of material reductionism, then consciousness requires time to formulate thoughts. If we agree with current scientific dogma, that thoughts are merely the product of reactions in the brain, and each of these reactions are dependent upon previous reactions, then what is it that enables these reactions to occur? More specifically what is it that permits spatial-temporal motion itself. By spatial-temporal motion, one must assume that this is the essence of causality. To understand this, we must first examine the constituents of Zeno's paradox. The basic premise of Zeno's paradox is that motion is impossible because all matter is located within a discrete unit in space which implies that no one could 4 MacDougall ever move from point A to point B, because we would be confined to particular spaces, always unable to traverse into other spaces (Huggett, 2019). The other dichotomous caveat of Zeno's paradox, is that if the former is absurd, then perhaps the second option holds more truth. The other half of Zeno's paradox, posits that if space was composed of an infinite amount of spaces between point A and point B, then we can never arrive at point B, we would get infinitely closer, but we would be trapped in an asymptotic relation between the two points. Returning to the question: does time create consciousness or does consciousness create time? If we employ the concept of Zeno's paradox, then the entire process of thinking suddenly becomes an impossibility. Either our thoughts are never completed or they are completed, but since we constantly find ourselves within a world in which we have completed thoughts, and can move from point A to point B, we must conclude that the lesser of the two impossibilities would be the world in which there is a finite amount of discrete units rather than a world which contains an infinite amount of units which would be inconceivable. The world in which we are always approaching a stoplight but never quite pass it, is 5 MacDougall certainly not the word we live in, since it appears that a world in which we can not ever approach point B is a world in which there are no completed thoughts, or completed lives, or completed anything for that matter. We would reject the latter solely on the basis that our current model of understanding and reason does not support a world with an infinitely divisible amount of units. We live in a world where we can move from point A to point B, and the mere fact that we can have complete thoughts posits that there cannot be an infinite amount of spaces between two points. On the other hand, there may be a coherent reason why motion is possible with regards to Zeno's idea of a finite amount of spacialtemporal units. This is merely an elaboration on one of the two caveats of Zeno's paradox. If we negate Zeno's proposition, that there is an infinite amount of spaces between point A and point B, on the basis that we can formulate thoughts and that we can move from point A to point B and eventually surpass point B, then it cannot be true that there is an infinitely divisible amount of space between two points, and if we agree with this conclusion which may still appear contentious, then we ought to adopt the next series of premises. 6 MacDougall If there is not an infinitely divisible amount of space between point A and point B, then that implies that there must be a finite amount of divisible space. If the mind produces time, then that would mean that there was no time to produce the mind, or the thoughts which occupy it. Since time itself is dependent upon the mind, because of course we require time to produce thoughts then this would mean that the mind could never produce the thoughts, which would then conceive of the "flow" of time in the first place, the first conscious entity would have never become conscious, time would stand still always as a frozen tesseract of information. If time created consciousness, then time itself would be a property of material substance, but Zeno's paradox affirms that material substance alone cannot initiate motion, because motion, as divisibly finite increments of spaces, is impossible; however motion ostensibly exists, and because motion appears to exist and not only does it exist, but it does so in a coherent fashion (not getting closer and closer to a stoplight but never passing it), it does so in defiance of Zeno's paradox. It may be arbitrary to say that we should prefer the absurd premise that space is made up of finitely divisible increments, rather than infinitely divisible 7 MacDougall amounts of space, but we can form finite and complete thoughts, and we can move from point A to point B. Based on this observation we should choose to adopt the least absurd out of the two, that space is divisibly finite. In other words, space is composed of finite spaces which all things are contained. However, we have arrived at a kind of irreconcilable circularity in which consciousness (as human or animal form) cannot create time, because if it did then that would presuppose that consciousness itself required time to produce the illusion of time, which is completely absurd. Consciousness would require time to produce itself which in turn would produce an illusion of time, but not before being subjected to a time independently of the illusion of time. Therefore, if motion or time really do exist, which it appears that they necessarily do, and motion is impossible without consciousness, then there is only one other explanation for the original cause of motion: that something must always be conscious for motion to occur, but why? The flow of time existed before and produced conscious entities, but that means that there is a time before the illusion of time. The only thing that causes time as an illusion, are conscious entities, but what about the time before the illusion? The following will 8 MacDougall explain why time independent of humans is still an illusion, but one that we did not create, or at least not yet. Earth is the only planet that is known to harbour conscious entities. Spacetime has evidently existed long before conscious entities have. Yet how is it possible that a series of events led to the production of consciousness, if there was no motion to bring forth conscious entities which would be capable of producing the illusion of consciousness? The only explanation is that spacetime is consciousness. Causality cannot occur without consciousness, otherwise everything that exists is locked within a finite amount of discrete spaces. For example, with Zeno's classic example, if one were to shoot an arrow then one would never even be capable of drawing the bow or fetching the arrow in the first place (Huggett, 2019). Or even conceiving of the thought of shooting the arrow at all. Not only that, but I would find myself in a world in which I would never be able to move or even breathe, chemical reactions and the laws of physics could not occur, the most basic forms of causation could not take place. The only reason why motion can exist is because of consciousness. If consciousness has only been around for a fraction of the entire existence of the universe then the only way 9 MacDougall that causal effects have progressed from the beginning of time up until the creation of consciousness would have been through the medium of consciousness itself. Consciousness is therefore interwoven into spacetime itself. One can only speculate beyond this and stipulate that perhaps human consciousness in all its progressing awareness will eventually end in a complete totality of knowledge of everything to the point where we have become conscious of everything, and then there will no longer be a distinction between consciousness and the universe. What this implies for the rest of ontology is a reform in the way we think about infinity. Infinity is then by definition the reproduction of consciousness, and all that is finite are the contents of consciousness, but ultimately there is no distinction. 10 MacDougall Bibliography Huggett, Nick, "Zeno's Paradoxes", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/ archives/win2019/entries/paradox-zeno/>. 