The purpose of the Recently Published Book Spotlight is to disseminate information about new scholarship to the field, explore the motivations for authors’ projects, and discuss the potential implications of the books. Our goal is to cover research from a broad array of philosophical areas and perspectives, reflecting the variety of work being done by APA members. If you have a suggestion for the series, please contact us here.
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Melvin Felton is a physicist who has conducted research in diverse fields that include remote sensing of the lower atmosphere, cybernetics, and computational neuroscience. Felton’s first book, Universe Within: The Surprising Way the Human Brain Models the Universe, introduces the reader to his unique perspective on the nature of reality. In this Recently Published Book Spotlight, Felton discusses similarities in the structural organization and dynamics of our universe and a subsystem within the human brain, and what this discovery could entail for the study of physics and consciousness.
What is your work about?
In Universe Within, I make the case that a physical model of the universe exists within the human brain. This model is not the same as the ones we are more familiar with, like the perceptual or higher level cognitive ones that our brains create to best represent our immediate environment and situations, or the conceptual ones in the form of religions, philosophies, and sciences that we humans collectively create to best represent the universe and our place in it. Rather, this model arises due to the structural organization and dynamics of a particular subsystem in the brain, a subsystem that I assert most resembles our present-day universe at a particular time during our nightly sleep cycles.
I arrive at this conclusion by performing a comparative analysis of the picture of the universe emerging out of physics and the picture of the brain emerging out of neuroscience. The key point is that the human brain may be a very useful model of the universe for physicists looking to extend upon our most fundamental theories of the nature of reality.
How do you relate your work to other well-known philosophies?
Idealism asserts that, one way or another, consciousness is the underlying essence of existence. Panpsychism asserts that all things in the universe are conscious to a degree depending on the level of complexity of their internal representations. Both idealism and panpsychism come in various forms, but generally they overlap with the notion that mind is both ubiquitous and the fundamental nature of existence. Therefore, both of these philosophical viewpoints are compatible with the ideas expressed in Universe Within because I propose a worldview in which all of what we know to be physical reality exists on the “experiential plane” of a Cosmic Brain. This Cosmic Brain is analogous to the human brain. So, by “experiential plane” I am referring to the regions of the brain that directly underlie our experiences.
In his book The Quest for Consciousness, neuroscientist Christof Koch placed these regions in intermediate areas of the neocortical hierarchy (the neocortex being the outermost region of our brain and the most recent to have evolved). In this view, what we see as physical reality can also be seen as what the Cosmic Brain is “experiencing”. I am not suggesting that the Cosmic Brain is like the notion of an omnipotent and omniscient god who consciously thinks up the universe. In fact, I believe the Cosmic Brain is currently in a non-conscious state. But consider us humans when we are in a non-conscious state, such as states of dreamless sleep. These states don’t necessarily mean that we do not experience anything, it’s just that we cannot demonstrate that we are experiencing anything and usually cannot express explicit memory of any experiences at some later time if they did in fact occur.
What directions would you like to take your work in the future?
I’d like to see if the ideas in Universe Within can bring two scientific disciplines even closer together than they have come over the past few decades: physics and neuroscience. If the human brain is a model of the universe, physicists would benefit from having a model system upon which they could make observations, and neuroscientists would benefit because now a larger set of insights and concepts in theoretical physics can become an inspiration and a guide to their future research efforts. Currently, there are numerous collaborations between neuroscientists and physicists where the toolbox used by physicists to characterize physical systems has experienced great success when applied to the study of the brain. However, identifying a picture of the universe emerging out of physics as a viable model of the human brain would provide higher-level intuition and theoretical constraints for scientists who attempt to decode the ways of the brain.
Why did you feel the need to write this work?
In the early 2000s, I was a graduate student studying physics at Hampton University in Hampton, VA. During this time, I became interested in a potential link between modern physics and teachings from ancient Egyptian and Asian schools of thought regarding the fundamental nature of reality. This most certainly did not make me unique because there is a long history of scientists who have wondered if there are deep connections between the scientific discoveries of their time and ancient beliefs from a wide variety of cultures.
Despite the ebb and flow of scientists’ interest in a connection between modern science and ancient philosophy, I have remained highly interested in the topic over the years. I eventually realized that there are common themes in some ancient teachings that have yet to be fully explored, namely, that the universe is created mentally and that we are the microcosm of it and/or the entity that creates it. I took from this that it might be possible to gain useful insight about the nature of the universe by comparing its structural organization and dynamics to that of the brain. Contrast this with the instructions of many ancient teachings for those who wish to comprehend the nature of reality to first become familiar with their mind via altered states of consciousness, such as meditation and lucid dreaming. This is a subjective approach to comprehending the nature of reality. I decided to take a much more objective approach.
I began to see my decision to do a comparative analysis of the universe and the brain as an example of how novel ideas can often be obtained by diversifying the population contributing ideas. I am a member of a significantly under-represented population in physics, neuroscience, and philosophy (African American and alumnus of Historically Black Colleges and Universities) dealing with the metaphysical issues discussed in Universe Within. Because of this, my ideas, voice, and methods of communication will most likely be very different from what is typically encountered, resulting in a fresh new perspective and a unique experience for readers who engage with the book.
Which of your insights or conclusions do you find most exciting?
Consider that, over time, complexity in the universe has increased in localized regions, namely within galactic structures where there are stars that create complex atoms, planets that form from stellar remnants, and, at least here on earth, where life and human society has evolved. The result of the universe increasing in complexity like this during the course of its evolution could be that it has crossed the threshold for deterministic chaos and has begun to manifest various degrees of self-similarity.
It has been suggested that the evolution of life on earth is a process that is more accurately described by deterministic chaos, which would make life a likely place for the universe to manifest its self-similarity. For example, it could be that, on earth, a more subtle form of the universe’s self-similarity manifests as non-primate mammalian brains, like those of dogs and cats. Then, a stricter form of the universe’s self-similarity could manifest as non-human primate brains, like those of macaques and chimpanzees. Ultimately, an even stricter (perhaps even the strictest) example of the universe’s self-similarity could appear in the form of the human brain (or perhaps even artificial intelligence since there is a strong thrust to make artificial neural network architectures more brain-like).
What effect do you hope your work will have?
I want it to be useful. Scientists and philosophers on the quest for a “theory-of-everything” may find my work useful because if it is true that the human brain can be used as a physical model of the universe, then these researchers can use this principle as a guide, illuminating the way to the theory that they know in their hearts is somewhere out there, just waiting to be discovered by humanity. Thus far, scientists have been able to construct beautiful mathematical frameworks, one of which is string theory, that they believe gives them the best chance to describe reality on the most fundamental level, even more fundamental than our most cherished, well-established theories, such as quantum mechanics and relativity theory. However, and particularly in the case of string theory, these scientists do not possess the technological ability to experimentally verify their theory’s predictions. The consensus on this predicament is that, because experimentation and observation are crucial steps in the scientific method, string theory will not be fully accepted as a legitimate scientific theory that reflects reality as long as this lack of experimental verification persists. Therefore, a physical model upon which observations could be made would go a long way toward establishing string theory’s relevance to physical reality.
I also would like to see Universe Within be a benefit to anyone else who enjoys pondering the nature of reality, such as those who can no longer ignore inconsistencies in their current worldview. People who feel like this may find that Universe Within imparts profound insight because it offers answers to our most fundamental philosophical questions like: what is the nature of reality and god, and what is the purpose of life? In other words, Universe Within points to a self-consistent worldview that extends the reach of our scientific knowledge to address such concepts as god, our relationship to the universe, and the meaning of existence. For professionals and laymen who wish to catch a glimpse of how humans stand in relation to the universe, a deep dive into descriptions of the universe and the brain emerging out of modern science is a requirement, an arduous yet most important and rewarding one.
What writing practices, methods, or routines do you use, and which have been the most helpful?
While researching and writing Universe Within, I stumbled upon something magical. By the time I started this project, I was already in the habit of listening to instrumental music (mostly hip hop and electronic) while I studied. I found that the lack of lyrics allowed me to remain focused on the study material and not suffer interference due to vocals. What I discovered was that there can be a powerful synergy between the strong emotional responses we often get when we: 1) perceive profound insight and 2) when we listen to music. I found that the latter can give a significant boost to the former. This emotional boost became an indispensable part of my work and helped power me through to the end of my time working on the book. It had such an impact on me that I decided I wanted to provide this same experience to the readers of Universe Within. That’s when I embarked on a parallel effort to begin producing hip hop instrumentals to accompany the book. I have produced a collection of beats that complements the book, making for a final product—beats and book—that can provide a unique experience to all who are willing to fully engage (depending on your taste in music of course).
Melvin Felton
Melvin Felton is a physicist who has conducted research in diverse fields that include remote sensing of the lower atmosphere, cybernetics, and computational neuroscience. He received his B.S. in mathematics from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA in 2000, and his M.S. in physics from Hampton University in Hampton, VA in 2003. Melvin’s book, Universe Within: The Surprising Way the Human Brain Models the Universe, introduces the reader to his unique perspective on the nature of reality.
Maryellen Stohlman-Vanderveen is the APA Blog's Diversity and Inclusion Editor and Research Editor. She graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy in 2023 and currently works in strategic communications. Her philosophical interests include conceptual engineering, normative ethics, philosophy of technology, and how to live a good life.
