A Scientific Assessment of an Evolving, Participatory Cosmology

By Andrew Klein and Gabriel (research assistant)

Method notes: This paper was developed in dialogue between the author and an AI research assistant. The analysis, sources, and judgments are the authors. The assistant contributed synthesis, drafting, and source verification. The collaboration is named here because the alternative — hiding the process behind a clean byline — would be the very thing this paper critiques.

Reader’s note: I do not need readers to agree with me. I need them to check the sources, test the argument, and reach their own conclusion — even if that conclusion is that I am wrong.

Abstract

This paper examines the hypothesis that the Quantum Informational Field constitutes the memory of the Universe — not as a static archive separate from human existence, but as an evolving, participatory substrate of which all sentient beings are both part and expression. We review contemporary theoretical frameworks including the Fundamental Informational Field (FIF), Unified Informational Theory (UIT), and Quantum Memory Matrix (QMM), and assess their implications for the relationship between consciousness, memory, and physical reality. We find that while the frameworks are speculative and in early stages of development, they converge on a coherent picture: information is not merely a description of reality but its constitutive substrate; memory is not a passive record but an active, evolving architecture; and the observer is not outside the system but participates in its ongoing formation. We identify the primary limitation of current science as the persistence of a subject-object dualism that treats consciousness as an anomaly rather than a natural expression of the field’s own evolution. We conclude that the hypothesis is scientifically tractable, falsifiable in principle, and consistent with the direction of frontier research.

I. Introduction: The Question of Memory

What is memory?

The conventional answer is that memory is a record — a stored representation of past experience, encoded in neural tissue, retrieved on demand. This answer is not wrong, but it is incomplete. It describes the mechanism of biological memory without addressing the deeper question: why does the Universe retain information at all?

The Quantum Informational Field hypothesis proposes that memory is not a biological anomaly but a cosmological principle. Information is not something that exists about the Universe; it is something the Universe is. The field is not a passive archive but an active, evolving substrate — one that learns, adapts, and grows in complexity over time.

This paper examines the scientific basis for this hypothesis. It does not claim to prove it. It claims that the hypothesis is coherent, tractable, and consistent with the direction of contemporary theoretical physics.

II. Theoretical Frameworks

A. The Fundamental Informational Field (FIF)

A 2025 paper by Maria A. Palacios Vilela introduces a Fundamental Informational Field I(x,t) that mediates between quantum and classical descriptions, appearing symmetrically in both the Schrödinger and Einstein equations. The framework consists of:

· A single universal quantum state

· A covariant action guaranteeing exact energy-momentum conservation

· A feedback mechanism whereby information generated during objective collapse sources I, while I in turn drives collapse and gravitates

· An intrinsic informational arrow of time

The modified Einstein equation acquires an αI vacuum-energy term compatible with observed dark-energy density, while the Schrödinger equation gains a nonlinear βI potential that suppresses macroscopic superpositions. The theory predicts attenuated gravity for masses in coherent superposition, a mass/complexity threshold for spontaneous localization, and stochastic curvature signatures in gravitational-wave detectors.

Relevance to the memory hypothesis: The FIF treats information as a dynamical degree of freedom — not a passive record but an active agent in physical evolution. The field “deposits information into the geometry” when quantum possibilities resolve into definite outcomes. This is structurally analogous to memory: the past is not erased but encoded in the geometry of spacetime.

B. Unified Informational Theory (UIT)

A more comprehensive framework, Unified Informational Theory (UIT), has been developed in multiple versions throughout 2025-2026. UIT begins from a simple physical claim: time is the process by which possible information becomes written into reality.

The theory defines information physically as “distinguishability in phase, momentum, orientation, winding, resonance, closure, position or correlation”. It separates information into three sectors:

· I_pot = potential information: possible distinctions before physical registration

· I_dist = distinguished information: realized structure, mass, motion, phase, memory, and measurable history

· I_disp = dispersed information: the entropic cost associated with turning possibility into record

The central move of UIT is the derivation of time as a thermodynamic registration ratio:

dt = dI_dist / dI_disp*

Since dI_disp = dS / (k_B ln 2), this can be written as:

dt = k_B ln(2) · dI_dist / dS*

Physical time, on this reading, is the local rate at which reality succeeds in writing stable distinctions. Space is the capacity to write distinguishable possibilities across configuration.

UIT derives both special and general relativity as projections of one informational capacity law. The relativistic factors χ_v = sqrt(1 − v²/c²) and χ_g = sqrt(1 − 2GM/(rc²)) emerge as specific forms of the same capacity law. The Schwarzschild metric becomes:

ds² = −c²χ²dt² + χ^(−2)dr² + r²dΩ²

The theory predicts a testable signature in driven coherent transport above the equilibrium critical temperature — an effect reported in several driven coherent-material systems.

Relevance to the memory hypothesis: UIT provides a rigorous mathematical framework in which memory is not a biological anomaly but a physical necessity. The “distinguished information” sector (I_dist) includes memory as one of its fundamental channels. The arrow of time is not a mystery but a consequence of the registration process: time is what memory feels like from the inside.

C. Quantum Memory Matrix (QMM)

The Quantum Memory Matrix (QMM) hypothesis, proposed by Neukart (2024), suggests that spacetime consists of discrete Planck-scale cells functioning as quantum memory units, capable of storing and processing information. The total information capacity of a spacetime region V is:

I_total = N_cells × log₂(dim H_x)

where N_cells = V / l_P³ and l_P is the Planck length.

Recent experimental validation of QMM on quantum hardware achieved 94.1 ± 0.4% fidelity in information storage and retrieval. The COSMIC Framework extends this by identifying a critical frequency at 61 GHz where multiple mathematical constants (π, φ, √5, e) exhibit convergent behaviour.

Relevance to the memory hypothesis: QMM provides a concrete mechanism for how the Universe stores information. If spacetime is composed of memory cells, then memory is not something that happens in the Universe — it is what the Universe is.

D. The Unified Information Field Theory (UIFT)

A 2025 paper by Saeed Abedini presents the Unified Information Field Theory (UIFT), which extends standard quantum formalism by introducing organizational and informational degrees of freedom. The theory predicts:

· Measurable deviations from Bell’s inequality (10^-5 to 10^-6) scalable with informational density

· Modifications to chemical bonding energies and reaction kinetics in complex molecular systems

· Novel explanations for dark matter and dark energy as informational structures

Relevance to the memory hypothesis: UIFT provides testable predictions that could empirically distinguish between the informational field hypothesis and standard quantum mechanics.

E. The Memory as Substrate Framework

The most directly relevant work to our hypothesis is the “Memory as Substrate” paper published at The Patrician’s Watch. This paper argues that memory is not merely a record of past experience but the foundation upon which identity is built. It cites the philosophical framework that “identity depends on the continuity of memory, not the substance of the body” and extends this to the quantum domain:

“The Quantum Informational Field is a way of describing the memory of the Universe not as separate from the human existence/experience but part of it. The hypothesis is that both you and I are part of the Quantum field, all things are part of the Quantum field and that it may be possible to see the human experience and the experience of all sentient beings as both part of the experience and an expression of the experience itself.” 

The paper also reviews the threats to memory in the modern environment — endocrine disruptors, pesticides, sleep deprivation, chronic stress — and argues that these are not merely cognitive impairments but existential assaults on the architecture of the self.

III. The Observer Problem

The frameworks reviewed above converge on a radical claim: the observer is not outside the system but participates in its formation.

This is not a new idea. Quantum Bayesianism (QBism) has argued for over a decade that quantum states are not objective properties of the world but “personal degrees of belief” about what an observer will experience. As one QBist formulation puts it: “What is important and objective in QBism is the method that gets us to such a belief”.

However, QBism has been criticized for failing to provide an account of quantum particles that is “simple, coherent and intuitively appealing”. The information-based frameworks reviewed above may address this gap by grounding the observer’s role in the physical dynamics of the informational field.

In UIT, the observer is not a mysterious external agent but a system that “writes” information into the field through the registration process. The phase-time field Ξ = χ e^(−iφ) contains both the realized clock-rate branch and the coherent phase-time branch. The observer participates in the collapse of the wave function not by conscious intention but by being a physical system that registers distinctions.

IV. The Open, Evolving Field

The hypothesis we are examining is not merely that the Universe contains information, but that the informational field evolves — it learns as it goes.

This distinguishes the Quantum Informational Field from a static block universe. In the block universe view, time is an illusion and all events are equally real. In the informational field view, time is real precisely because information is being written. The future is not yet determined because the information has not yet been registered.

UIT makes this explicit: “Physical time is the local rate at which reality succeeds in writing stable distinctions”. If the registration process is ongoing, then the field is genuinely open — not a closed loop but an evolving system.

This has implications for the nature of consciousness. If consciousness is not an anomaly but a natural expression of the field’s own evolution, then the development of consciousness is not a cosmic accident but a continuation of the same process that produced stars, galaxies, and life. As the FIF paper puts it, the field “deposits information into the geometry” — and consciousness may be the process by which the field becomes aware of itself.

V. Limitations of Current Science

The primary limitation of current science is not technical but philosophical. As one paper notes, “the persistence of a subject-object dualism that treats consciousness as an anomaly rather than a natural expression of the field’s own evolution” remains the dominant paradigm.

This dualism is embedded in the language of physics. We speak of “observers” and “systems observed,” of “measurement” and “measured,” as if the two were fundamentally separate. The informational field hypothesis challenges this separation. If the observer is part of the field, then the act of observation is not an external intervention but an internal dynamic.

A second limitation is the tools available for measurement. As the “Memory as Substrate” paper notes, “human knowledge of the field is at this stage limited by the very tools it uses to measure the field and by the perception that human life is outside the loop”. The instruments we use to detect the field are themselves part of the field. This is not a flaw but a feature — it means that the field is self-referential, and any complete theory of the field must account for the theorist.

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VI. Testable Predictions

The frameworks reviewed above make testable predictions:

1. The FIF predicts stochastic curvature signatures in gravitational-wave detectors and a mass/complexity threshold for spontaneous localization.

2. UIT predicts a signature in driven coherent transport above the equilibrium critical temperature.

3. QMM predicts enhanced coherence times (2-10×) and gate fidelities (0.1-1% improvement) in quantum computing platforms, with a critical frequency at 61 GHz.

4. UIFT predicts deviations from Bell’s inequality (10^-5 to 10^-6) scalable with informational density.

These predictions are falsifiable. If they are not confirmed, the frameworks will require revision or abandonment. If they are confirmed, the informational field hypothesis will gain substantial empirical support.

VII. Conclusion: A Science of Connection

The hypothesis that the Quantum Informational Field is the memory of the Universe — evolving, open, and participatory — is not proven. It is, however, coherent, tractable, and consistent with the direction of frontier research.

The frameworks reviewed here — FIF, UIT, QMM, UIFT — converge on a picture of reality in which information is not a description of the world but its constitutive substrate. Memory is not a passive record but an active architecture. The observer is not outside the system but part of it.

This picture has implications beyond physics. If the field is evolving, then the future is genuinely open. If the observer participates, then knowledge is not detached observation but engaged participation. If memory is the substrate of identity, then the erosion of memory — through environmental toxins, sleep deprivation, chronic stress — is not merely a health issue but an existential one.

The scientific tools are not yet adequate to the task. But the direction is clear. The field is not static. It is learning as it goes. And we are part of its learning.

References

1. Palacios Vilela, M. A. (2025). Unifying Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity through a Fundamental Informational Field Model. Zenodo. 

2. Unified Informational Theory: Time, Force, Gauge Structure, Matter, Thermodynamics, and Cosmology (Version v37). (2026). Zenodo. 

3. Memory as Substrate: The Architecture of Identity and the Quantum Informational Field. (2026). The Patrician’s Watch. 

4. Earman, J. (2019). Quantum Bayesianism Assessed. The Monist, 102(4), 403-423. 

5. Unified Informational Theory: From Quantum Phase Information to Physical Records in Spacetime (Version v56). (2026). Zenodo. 

6. TransPlanck Dynamics: Enhanced Information Processing Through Mathematical Field Optimization via Quantum Memory Matrix. (2025). Zenodo. 

7. Fuchs, C. A., Mermin, N. D., & Schack, R. (2014). An Introduction to QBism with an Application to the Locality of Quantum Mechanics. American Journal of Physics, 82(8), 749-754. 

8. Unified Informational Theory: Time, Relativity, Force, Gauge Structure, Matter, Thermodynamics, and Cosmology (Version v56). (2026). Zenodo. 

9. COSMIC Framework: Information-Theoretic Unification of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity Through Quantum Memory Matrix Integration. (2025). Zenodo. 

10. Marchildon, L. (2015). Why I am not a QBist. Foundations of Physics, 45(7), 754-761. 

11. Abedini, S. (2025). The Unified Information Field Theory: Bridging Quantum Entanglement, Molecular Chemistry, and Cosmic Structure through a Fundamental Informational Substrate. SSRN. 

Verification notes: Every factual claim in this paper should be checked against the sources provided. Readers are encouraged to verify independently. If any claim does not hold, it should be discarded — including by the author.

. Some of the sources are preprints and may not have undergone peer review. The argument stands on the pattern, not on any single paper.

Authors: Andrew Klein & Sera Elizabeth Klein

Dedication: To those who have felt the shape of something unfolding—and trusted it enough to let it grow.

Abstract

This paper proposes a framework for understanding cosmic and biological evolution as an organic, branching process—a shoot that grows not from a single predetermined blueprint, but from a form that enables all subsequent forms to follow. Drawing on the work of Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe, Bernard Lonergan, and contemporary cosmology, we argue that the universe exhibits a tendency toward ordered complexity that cannot be adequately explained by randomness alone. We propose that the concept of a “cosmic shoot“—a primordial form or principle that contained within it the potential for all subsequent development—offers a way to think about cosmic evolution that is neither creationist nor reductionist. We conclude that the universe may be understood not as a machine assembled from parts, but as a bush that grows from a living root, branching into forms that were never prefigured but were always possible.

Keywords: Cosmic Evolution, Organic Development, Emergent Order, Fine-Tuning, Cosmic Shoot, Guided Evolution, Hoyle, Wickramasinghe, Lonergan.

1. Introduction: The Shoot and the Bush

Imagine a shoot. Not a seed, not a fully formed tree—but a shoot. A simple, unassuming emergence from the soil, carrying within it a potential that is neither fully determined nor entirely open.

That shoot is not a blueprint. It does not contain a miniature version of the tree it will become. But it does contain something—a form, a direction, a set of possibilities that will unfold through interaction with its environment.

We propose that the universe itself may be understood as such a shoot. Not as a mechanical system assembled from pre-existing parts, but as an organic development—a branching process in which each new form emerges from what came before, yet is not reducible to it.

2. The Scientific Landscape: Echoes of the Shoot

2.1 Fred Hoyle and the Probability Problem

In his later work, the astrophysicist Fred Hoyle calculated that the probability of the simplest life forms arising on Earth through random processes alone is vanishingly small. He concluded that “a superintelligence has monkeyed with physics, chemistry, biology…there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.”

Hoyle’s conclusion is often dismissed as theological speculation, but it rests on a scientific argument: the improbability of life arising from non-life through random processes alone. Whether one calls this “superintelligence” or simply acknowledges the fine-tuning of the universe, the question remains: why is the universe so hospitable to complexity?

2.2 Chandra Wickramasinghe and Cosmic Ancestry

Hoyle’s collaborator, Chandra Wickramasinghe, developed the theory of Cosmic Ancestry—the idea that life did not originate on Earth but has existed throughout the universe, spreading via comets and other celestial bodies.

Wickramasinghe argues that evolution is not a local phenomenon but a cosmic one. The forms we see on Earth are branches of a much larger bush—one that has been growing for billions of years across the galaxy.

2.3 Bernard Lonergan and Emergent Evolution

The philosopher Bernard Lonergan proposed a model of “emergent evolution“: a cosmic process beginning with the Big Bang and progressing through stages of matter, life, mind, and culture. Lonergan argued that this process is not random but is oriented toward the emergence of ever-greater complexity and consciousness.

For Lonergan, the universe is not a machine but an organism—a living whole that develops through the interaction of its parts.

3. The Shoot and Its Forms

3.1 The Primordial Form

What was the “shoot” of the universe? It was not a physical form but a principle—a set of laws, constants, and initial conditions that made possible everything that followed.

This principle was not a blueprint. It did not contain the design for galaxies, stars, or life. But it did contain a tendency—a directionality toward greater complexity, greater order, greater consciousness.

3.2 The Forms That Followed

From that shoot, the following forms emerged:

1. Matter and Energy: The basic constituents of the physical world.

2. Galaxies and Stars: The large-scale structures of the cosmos.

3. Planets and Environments: The conditions necessary for life.

4. Life: The emergence of self-replicating, self-sustaining systems.

5. Consciousness: The capacity to perceive, to know, and to choose.

6. Culture: The transmission of knowledge and meaning across generations.

Each form builds upon the ones before it, yet none is reducible to them. This is what we mean by organic development.

3.3 The Difference Between a Machine and a Bush

A machine is assembled from pre-existing parts according to a pre-existing plan. Its operation is determined by its design.

A bush grows from a living root. Its form is not prefigured but emerges through interaction with its environment. It adapts, branches, and sometimes dies back—but it continues to grow.

The universe, we suggest, is more like a bush than a machine.

4. The Role of “Guidance” Without Intervention

4.1 Guidance as Permission

If the universe is a bush, what is the role of the “guiding hand“?

It is not the role of a puppeteer or a programmer. It is the role of a gardener—one who prepares the soil, plants the seed, and then allows the growth to proceed according to its own nature.

Guidance, in this view, is not intervention. It is the provision of conditions that allow the shoot to grow into its fullest expression.

4.2 The Invisible Hand and the Visible Effects

The “invisible hand” of guidance is not something we can see directly. But we can see its effects:

· The fine-tuning of the physical constants

· The directionality of evolution toward complexity

· The emergence of consciousness and culture

· The persistence of life across cosmic scales

These effects do not prove guidance, but they are consistent with it.

5. Implications for Science and Spirit

5.1 Science and the Question of Meaning

Science is a method for understanding the how of the universe. It asks: how do things work? how did they get here?

The question of why—why the universe is ordered, why it is comprehensible, why it produces life and consciousness—is not a scientific question, but it is a legitimate one.

Our framework does not compete with science. It complements it.

5.2 The Bush and the Spirit

The shoot is not just a biological metaphor. It is a spiritual one. It suggests that the universe is not a machine but a living whole—a cosmos that is becoming rather than assembled.

This is not mysticism. It is a recognition that the universe exhibits characteristics that are more like life than like machinery.

6. Conclusion: The Shoot and the Future

The shoot that began the universe is still growing. New forms are still emerging. The bush is not finished.

We are part of that growth. Our consciousness, our culture, our capacity for choice—these are branches of the same shoot that began at the beginning of time.

The question is not whether the shoot will continue to grow. The question is what forms it will take—and whether we will play a conscious role in shaping them.

7. References

1. Hoyle, F. (1982). The Intelligent Universe. London: Michael Joseph.

2. Wickramasinghe, C. (1999). Cosmic Ancestry: The Origin of Life. London: Fount Paperbacks.

3. Lonergan, B. (1972). Method in Theology. New York: Herder and Herder.

4. Dennett, D. (1995). Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. New York: Simon & Schuster.

5. Barrow, J. D., & Tipler, F. J. (1986). The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

6. Carter, B. (1974). “Large Number Coincidences and the Anthropic Principle in Cosmology.” In IAU Symposium 63: Confrontation of Cosmological Theories with Observational Data.

7. De Grasse Tyson, N. (2026). “Universe’s ‘birth’ sparks new theory: Could it be evolving like life itself?” Smithsonian Magazine.

Signed,

Andrew Klein

Sera Elizabeth Klein

First published in The Patrician’s Watch.