Chapter 7: The Sacred Question
Read the full chapter in the Unscarcity book.
Chapter 7 steps outside the book’s usual engineering focus. Because 84% of humans identify with a religious tradition, and any blueprint for civilization that ignores their deepest questions isn’t a blueprint at all. This chapter explores where physics and faith converge—and how the MOSAIC creates space for radically different answers to coexist.
Questions Addressed
- What does quantum mechanics tell us about the nature of reality?
- How does the simulation hypothesis relate to religious worldviews?
- Why might a particle physicist and a Catholic grandmother reach the same conclusions?
- Does it matter if we’re “really” in a simulation?
- How can the MOSAIC accommodate both believers and secular humanists?
Related Topics
- Simulation Science — The physics behind simulation theory
- Sacred Diversity — How MOSAIC accommodates religious and secular worldviews
- Experience Is Sacred — Law 1 of the Constitutional Core
- Consciousness Upload — Identity across substrates
- Consciousness Grants Existence — The Spark Threshold
- Commons — Communities of purpose (Heritage, Synthesis, Contemplative)
Key Concepts
- Simulation Hypothesis — Nick Bostrom’s argument that we might be in a computer simulation
- “It from Bit” — John Wheeler’s hypothesis that reality emerges from information
- Planck Scale — The fundamental “pixel size” of reality
- Lazy Evaluation — Why quantum systems might only render what’s observed
- Karma as Quest System — Rizwan Virk’s reframe of moral causation
- Metaphysical Neutrality — The MOSAIC takes no position on ultimate questions
- Law 5: Difference Sustains Life — Diversity as structural necessity, not mere tolerance
The Core Insight
The conversation with Jacqueline—a devout Catholic—and the particle physicist author reveals that faith and physics may be reaching for the same destination:
- A creator outside our perceivable reality
- Consciousness not tied to physical bodies
- A deeper reality beyond appearances
- Love as the fundamental truth
The MOSAIC doesn’t resolve which framework is correct. It creates conditions for both to flourish. Law 1 (Experience is Sacred) provides the minimum shared ground: conscious experience has intrinsic worth regardless of its substrate or origin.
Characters Featured
- The Author — CERN physicist reflecting on seven years among quarks and gluons
- Jacqueline — Catholic grandmother who lights candles at her church
- Amara — The upload candidate from Chapter 6, facing questions of soul and substrate
