Quantum Informational Panpsychism
Federico Faggin on Consciousness, Quantum Fields and the Fractal Self
“Qualia do not exist in the body; they exist in the field.”
—Federico Faggin
The often reductionist frameworks of classical physics fail to accurately account for the subjectivity of consciousness. Federico Faggin proposes consciousness as an irreducible quantum-informational field, pervading and structuring reality itself.1
In Faggin’s model of quantum informational-panpsychism, consciousness operates at a level of fundamental reality as an all-encompassing field of quantum information. This model views subjective experience as being embedded within the very fabric of existence. Our bodies, like sensory interfaces, translate quantum informational states into conscious perception.
The Limits of Mathematics in Explaining Consciousness
Federico Faggin, the pioneering inventor behind the first microprocessor and early neural networks, once pursued the dream of artificial consciousness. However, after decades of deep inquiry, he concluded that mathematics is created by consciousness, not the other way around.
Mathematics can’t explain consciousness because it is a construct of conscious thought. Many physicists cling to the notion that consciousness emerges as a property of classical systems, but emergentism, in Faggin’s view, requires a quantum foundation.
Faggin argues that Schrödinger’s equation does not suffice, nor even more advanced formulations. One must venture beyond quantum fields and into the realm of quantum information, where information is the very foundation of reality. Italian physicist Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano has demonstrated that the entirety of quantum mechanics can be derived from quantum bits (qubits). If this framework holds, not only does it provide a theory of consciousness, but it also offers a resolution to the interpretational riddles of quantum mechanics.
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A Non-Reductive Psycho-Informational Approach
To resolve the "hard problem" of consciousness, Faggin rejects the assumption that subjective experience arises from complex neural computations alone. Instead, he posits that the quantum informational field is ontologically primary, giving rise to both physical structures and the self-aware processes that animate them.
Quantum Informational panpsychism recognizes consciousness as an active principle, a force that selects, interprets, and manifests reality. Unlike purely classical systems, which operate within deterministic frameworks, consciousness exerts causal influence through non-local entanglement, shaping reality itself.
Faggin believes that this non-reductive model dismantles the materialist illusion that awareness is derivative of neural complexity. Instead, in his view, cognition emerges from the interaction between quantum information and biological structures.
The basic idea Faggin is expressing here is that the quantum informational field has consciousness “baked” into it, such that the first-person (subjective) aspect of consciousness co-arises with the third-person (objective) subtle energetic and informational flows of the quantum field. In this model, consciousness and the quantum field do not “produce” one another. Rather, they co-arise. All things in the universe are manifestations of this co-arising of consciousness and quantum information flows, what Faggin collectively refers to as the quantum informational field.
In my humble estimation, his model is congruent with various aether theories which also propose that all existence is a manifestation of a single, underlying field possessing both energetic substance and consciousness.
Qualia and the Role of Entanglement
Qualia are the irreducible, intrinsic textures of subjective experience: raw, non-transferable phenomena through which consciousness directly apprehends what it perceives as reality. Third-person observations and mechanistic theories can’t explain them.
Classical frameworks fail to account for first-person experience. Why does red feel red? Why does pain hurt? Faggin argues that qualia arise from quantum entanglement, which binds quantum states into holistic patterns, creating an indivisible network of meaning. This allows subjective states to retain coherence, ensuring that experience is unified rather than fragmented. Consciousness is, in this model, not an emergent byproduct but an active, structuring principle, shaping experience through the fundamental processes of quantum information.2
The Drone and the Observer
Imagine that you control a drone. The drone surveys an environment, transmits its sensory data, and you, the operator, experience the world through its lens. This sensory information does not reside within the drone; it exists in your consciousness.
In this model, our bodies are not the seat of consciousness but rather the instruments through which consciousness operates. Experience and qualia (those ineffable, subjective qualities of perception) are not housed within the brain but exist within a conscious quantum field that pervades reality. To the materialist, this idea appears radical, but Faggin believes it is closer to the truth than conventional science dares to admit.
Evolution of Consciousness and Free Will
Quantum Informational panpsychism views consciousness as an irreducible, fundamental feature of existence.Unlike deterministic systems, which merely execute predefined algorithms, conscious beings exert influence upon reality through quantum decision-making.
Faggin proposes that free will is linked to wave function collapse, which is the selection of potential states into actualized experience. His model views decision-making as a manifestation of quantum selection.
Faggini believes that evolution itself may be understood through this lens. Rather than being solely a process of genetic mutation and environmental selection, consciousness plays a participatory role, shaping evolutionary trajectories through quantum-informed intention and adaptation.3
Memory: A Quantum Field of Stored Experience
Faggin’s model redefines memory. Instead of being localized solely in neural structures, memory functions as an extended quantum field (i.e., Rupert Sheldrake’s morphogenic field), interfacing with the broader informational fabric of reality.
Faggin suggests that memories persist as quantum informational imprints, accessible through resonance with specific conscious states.
The Nature of Consciousness: Fields, Not Machines
In Faggin’s model, each of us is a quantum field of consciousness. These fields are not contained within space and time; rather, space-time exists within these fields. The prevailing scientific paradigm, which reduces human beings to biological machines, is woefully incomplete. In Faggin’s view, if we continue along this reductionist path, we will arrive at a dystopian endpoint where powerful interests wield artificial intelligence as an instrument of control, enforcing a mechanized vision of humanity.
But the truth is otherwise. The body is indeed a machine, but one of unimaginable sophistication, far beyond the capabilities of any silicon-based system. Unlike classical computers, whose bits exist in discrete, separable states, biological systems are quantum-classical hybrids, where each cell functions as a portal to the whole. Every cell contains the genetic blueprint of the entire organism, demonstrating a holographic structure at the biological level. This principle extends further: we, as conscious beings, are fractal expressions of the totality of existence.
D’Ariano, G.M., & Faggin, F. (2020). Hard Problem and Free Will: an information-theoretical approach. arXiv: Quantum Physics.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Excellent read, thank you for sharing 🙏