In everyday experience, the concepts of space and time appear to be harmless illusions. The problem arises when science, by treating these as fundamental and independent entities, takes a misguided starting point in its quest to understand the nature of reality. Many researchers still cling to the belief that they can build an understanding of the physical side of nature without considering the living aspect.
These scientists, driven by inclination and training, are fixated on mathematical descriptions of the world. If only, once they leave their laboratories, they would earnestly observe a pond and witness the intricate dynamics of minnow schools surfacing. The fish, ducks, and cormorants navigating beyond the water plants are integral components of a broader answer.
Recent developments in quantum studies offer glimpses into what a new biocentric science could entail. Nicolas Gisin's entanglement experiment, with potential visible results to the naked eye, and Anton Zeilinger's exploration of quantum reality with larger molecules like buckyballs at the University of Vienna, bring quantum effects closer to the macroscopic world. An intriguing extension proposed by Roger Penrose involves a small mirror becoming part of an entangled quantum system, vastly exceeding the scale of a buckyball. If this experiment validates Penrose's idea, it would affirm that quantum effects extend to objects on a human scale.
Biocentrism has the potential to liberate Western science from self-imposed constraints. By incorporating the observer into the equation, it opens new avenues for understanding cognition, unraveling the mysteries of consciousness, and developing thinking machines that share our perceptual experience. Furthermore, biocentrism provides a more robust foundation for addressing challenges in quantum physics and the Big Bang. Viewing space and time as forms of biological sense perception, rather than external physical entities, offers a fresh perspective on phenomena ranging from the microworld (e.g., the peculiar outcomes of the two-slit experiment) to the fundamental forces, constants, and laws shaping the universe. At the very least, it presents a potential resolution to ongoing challenges like string theory.
Most importantly, biocentrism presents a more promising approach to unifying all of physics, a goal pursued since Einstein's attempts at unified field theories nearly eight decades ago. Until we acknowledge the essential role of biology, our endeavors to truly unify our understanding of the universe will continue to lead us nowhere.