Quantum Consciousness & AI: Is Awareness Fundamental?

Did consciousness exist before life itself? Is it fundamental to the universe? Mark and Jeremy continue their book club exploration of Irreducible, by Federico Faggin.

In Chapter 8 of Irreducible, Faggin goes bonkers and redefines physics, maths and what it means to be human: consciousness isn’t just a byproduct of your brain, but a fundamental feature of the universe. C

reation, order, and free will, Faggin’s “quantum information–based panpsychism” offers answers to the biggest questions any human might ask:

What is there something and not nothing? How did life evolve?

We're not physicists. We're not quantum theorists. We're just two dads and curious minds trying to make sense of the world.

A pure quantum state carries a private, unrepeatable experience that no algorithm can duplicate (thanks to the no-cloning theorem).Seity is a self-conscious field—think of it like Buckminster Fuller’s “phantom captain”—showing identity can exist outside our physical bodies. Like, wtf?Quantum entanglement is free will? Again, WTF?Nested levels of reality: From inanimate dust to living creatures, conscious entities and finally beings with true free will—each level sits inside the next.

And all this means AI can’t be truly creative, let alone conscious.

Books ready!

Are you sitting comfortably?

Then we'll begin.

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Chapters

(00:00) Consciousness and The Big Questions

(01:24) The Shift in Understanding Consciousness

(02:38) Consciousness: Quantum vs Classical

(06:14) What Is Panpsychism and Quantum Information?

(09:03) Qualia and Conscious Experience

(11:23) What Is Seity?

(19:26) Free Will and Quantum Entanglement

(21:21) Unsolved Problems of Existence

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Thinking on Paper is for builders, skeptics, and systems thinkers who don’t buy the default future. You want to know the why behind the what.

From AI and quantum to Web3 and robotics, we talk to engineers, founders, CEOS and researchers about what they’re creating—and what it really means for business, culture and society.

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