Space+Time+Consciousness: A foundational measure of the universe

In previous posts, we have defined “consciousness” as the response to stimuli. See, for instance, “‘What if,’” the way creativity begins and consciousness is measured.”

We also have discussed the possibility that time is a property like mass, charge, or spin, and not just a measure.

Recently, I read, “What If Consciousness Is a Universal Force? The Idea That Mind Comes Before Matter,” where consciousness is described as a field unto itself that could exist before there was anything that could be described as being conscious. 

All of my articles about consciousness and time, and the latter article, were precipitated by quantum “weirdness,” the discovery that quantum particles can be in multiple states and places simultaneously and, when “entangled,” can affect each other’s states instantly, no matter how far apart they are.

The words “simultaneously” and “instantly” reveal the effect of time on quantum mechanics as well as on Relativity.

Welcome To The World of Consciousness: A Universal Hypothesis of Time and Response

For centuries, consciousness has been considered a uniquely human trait. It has been linked to self-awareness, language, and even morality.

But what if this assumption was never true? What if consciousness is not a binary quality possessed only by certain minds, but rather a universal property, evident wherever there are stimuli and responses?

This article proposes that a non-mystical, physically grounded theory of consciousness as the degree to which any system responds to stimuli over time.

In this view, consciousness is not owned. It is measured. It is not metaphysical. It is emergent. And it is not exclusive to humans. It is everywhere, even in things that are not recognized for having a brain.

Consciousness as Response

At its most basic, consciousness is the degree of responsiveness to stimuli over time. A rock, a worm, a person, and a computer each are exposed to stimuli and respond in some way. The difference lies not in kind, but in degree.

Humans may respond richly, a fly more simply, a stone infinitesimally—but all lie on the same spectrum.

This reframing strips consciousness of its mystical baggage. It no longer requires vaguely imagined properties. (“I can’t say exactly what it is, but I know it when I see it.”) 

It requires only that a system change in reaction to its environment.

It answers such questions as, “Which of these is conscious?”

A sleeping person? A fetus? A newborn child? A person in a coma? A person with parasomnias? A chimpanzee? A dog? A bottlenose porpoise?  A bee? An ant? A tree? A bacterium? A stone? The moon? The sum? The universe?

The answer is that all of them possess some degree of consciousness. It’s chemistry and physics, not metaphysics. The only questions one must answer are: “What stimuli does each receive and how does each respond?”

Of course, “only” is a word that makes the problem sound trivial when it is quite the opposite. 

Awareness And Judgment

To respond meaningfully, a system must, at some level, be aware of the stimulus. A thermostat “notices” temperature and adjusts. A bee notices intruders and attacks. An artificial intelligence detects words and replies with a programmed meaning.

This basic form of awareness is structural, not sentient in the traditional sense, but it is awareness nonetheless.

Judgment then emerges as a pattern of selective response. The bee targets, the thermostat calibrates, and the AI ranks, filters, and generates. The tree bends toward the light and responds to chemicals in the soil.

Bacteria use quorum sensing to form a biofilm. They are aware of, and even can count, the number of similar bacteria surrounding them, and if a certain number is reached, they decide to form a biofilm.

The words “aware of,” “count,” and “decide” all imply some measure of consciousness.

The moon alters its orbit in response to the sun, the Earth, and meteors.

All are conscious of stimuli and respond. Conscious and respond in time. Humans do all this too, but with more memory and complexity, not with any unique capacity.

Speaking of “sentient in the traditional sense,” this, often falsely, is thought of as some indescribable capacity beyond physics and chemistry, a unique, otherworldly ability we humans have.

It is none of those. It is chemistry and physics, as the following excerpts from the May 10, 2025, issue of New Scientist Magazine demonstrate. 

What are microplastics doing to your brain? We’re starting to find out
The average human brain contains around 7 grams of plastic, but it’s unclear how this affects us. Now, animal studies are revealing links to poor cognition and weird behaviour.By Marta Zaraska

Given a choice between two sea snail shells, hermit crabs know which will make a better home. That is, unless their thinking has been muddled by ingesting microplastics.

Then, they struggle with a decision that could be crucial for survival. They aren’t alone: across the animal kingdom, it appears, tiny bits of plastic change behaviours and mess up cognition.

Exposure to these particles makes mice more forgetful and less social. Bees have trouble learning. Zebrafish act more anxious.

“If you turn the top of your plastic bottle, you shower tiny pieces of plastic down into the water,” says Tamara Galloway, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Exeter, UK.

Thus, molecules of plastic affect knowledge, thinking, decision-making, behavior, cognition, memory, sociability, learning, and emotions, even in the “lowest” of creatures.

No magic to sentience, consciousness, awareness, or judgement. Just physics and chemistry to which everything responds.

Emotion As Distributed Reaction

Emotions are often cited as the barrier separating man and machine. But this only holds if we define emotions narrowly, as mysterious feelings rather than physical functions.

Redefined, emotion is just a non-local, distributed reaction to a localized stimulus.

You are stung by a bee and feel localized pain along with anger that affects your entire body. A dog hears a single tone and eagerly anticipates food; a wasp perceives a threat, and the swarm attacks.

These are not feelings in the poetic sense, but patterns of system-wide change triggered by inputs. Under this model, even artificial systems can manifest something like emotion: a wide array of state changes, cascading across modules in response to one small command.

If an AI were given a four-letter swear word and programmed to respond with the words, “Same to you,” then shut down, that would be a sign of emotion, indistinguishable from nature programming you to respond with anger.

Preference and Visualization

Preference is a structured tendency toward certain responses over others. Flies prefer rot; humans prefer perfume. A professor might prefer coherent logic to broken syntax.

These are not mystical tastes. They are responses, guided by chemistry and physics. A huge enough block of matter floating in space prefers to be round rather than angular.

Visualization, or the proactive response to imagined stimuli, is simply a higher-order function of memory and prediction. Animals do it. Humans do it more. AIs do it algorithmically.

And while a rock may not visualize in this sense, its weathering patterns represent time-mediated adaptation and time-shaped change.

Time: The Inducing Field

Consciousness is responsiveness, and time is the medium in which consciousness unfolds. Just as the Higgs field induces mass, the temporal field facilitates change, and thus responsiveness, and thus consciousness.

Time is not a passive backdrop but the enabler of variation. Without time, there is no change, no stimulus, no reaction, no consciousness.

The relationship between time and consciousness is suggested in the following excerpts:

What If Consciousness Is a Universal Force? The Idea That Mind Comes Before Matter 

Could consciousness be the fundamental force that shapes everything?

This idea challenges the conventional view that matter came first, suggesting instead that consciousness might be the building block of reality itself.

Imagine if every thought and every emotion were not just personal experiences but were woven into the very fabric of the cosmos. Such a notion invites us to rethink what we know about the universe and our place within it.

Materialists argue that consciousness arises from physical processes within the brain, while idealists believe that consciousness precedes and gives rise to matter.  The idea that consciousness might be a universal force offers a tantalizing twist, suggesting that perhaps both sides have been missing a crucial piece of the puzzle.

Quantum physics has long fascinated scientists with its mysterious and counterintuitive findings. Some interpretations of quantum mechanics suggest that consciousness might play a role in the behavior of particles at the smallest scales. The observer effect, for instance, implies that the mere act of observation can alter the outcome of a quantum event.

Einstein spoke of a four-dimensional universe, which he called “space-time,” three dimensions of space and one of time.  Could there be one more dimension: Consciousness?

It would be consciousness-space-time.

All entities, macro and quantum, are measured in space, time, and consciousness. Depending on size, these three variables have different importance.

For the most massive objects — stars, black holes, galaxies — we tend to focus on the space-time measure. For the tiniest objects, we focus on consciousness-time.

We are accustomed to entities moving through space. It is how we move each day. We are less accustomed to entities moving through time — as Einstein revealed– because we do not sense that motion, except for barely detectable responses at near light speed and even tinier responses at slower speeds. 

And we have recently detected objects changing via consciousness, which moderates the maximum amount of knowledge we can have about a quantum particle. Considered as a unit, consciousness+space+time tells us all we can know.

A Continuum, Not a Wall

The greatest error of human exceptionalism has been to draw a line where there is only a slope. From stones to stars, from bees to brains, from humans to machines—consciousness is not a switch, but a gradient, and time is the field in which they function.

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Source: https://mythfighter.com/2025/06/07/spacetimeconsciousness-a-foundational-measure-of-the-universe/