Complexity Theory, Consciousness, and Everyday Life

In this 2023 interview with Justine Willis Toms, Neil Theise, M.D discusses the nature of complex systems, and how the limited randomness in biological life makes us different from machines. They also discuss how the brain does not create consciousness, and how consciousness is fundamental in the universe.

Theise is a practicing pathologist and leading stem-cell researcher as well as an explorer in the nature of consciousness and its relationship to us and the cosmos as revealed in Complexity Theory. He is also a senior student of Zen Buddhism at the Village Zendo, in New York City, under the guidance of Roshi Enkyo O’Hara. Theise is the author of Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being. (Spiegel & Grau 2023)

Interview Date: 2/25/2023   Tags: Neil Theise, ant colony, ant colonies, errant ant, quenched disorder, technosphere, liver cells, stem cells, hard problem in science, complexity theory, consciousness, Max Planck, spacetime energy field, quantum physics, particles, photons, waves, complementarity, nonlocality, mass extinction, Covid, AIDS, holocaust, Buddhist relative and absolute, Science, Buddhism, Personal Transformation