3 Comments

FYI, Schrodinger didn't believe in a "Universal Mind", as there is no such thing. He believed in Open Individualism, which is a theory of personal identity (along with Closed and Empty individualisms) that says there is only one subject of experience who is everyone everywhere at all times. The different consciousnesses are not somehow unified in a bigger mind "above" them, they are located in different places, but there is only one subjectivity which has the experiences, all at the same time. This is also a view of Advaita Vedanta, which is the fact Schrodinger himself acknowledges in the book.

Some useful links with more explanations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_individualism

https://opentheory.net/2018/09/a-new-theory-of-open-individualism/

https://qualiacomputing.com/2020/06/06/mini-series-on-open-individualism/

https://qualiacomputing.com/2018/07/23/open-individualism-and-antinatalism-if-god-could-be-killed-itd-be-dead-already/

https://edralis.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/you-are-everyone-that-ever-existed-and-ever-will-exist-on-open-individualism/

https://edralis.wordpress.com/2020/07/24/mineness-and-personal-identity/#_ftnref8

Expand full comment

Wow, thank you for sharing this! This is the kind of thing that, had I read it decades ago, might have spared me decades of searching, wondering doubting. The benefit, I suppose, of being bereft of reading this is finding myself trying to answer the same questions this guy did and coming to very similar conclusions.

Expand full comment