The Journey from Computer to Consciousness with Frederico Faggin

Sep 17, 2024

Federico Faggin, physicist and inventor of early microprocessors turned consciousness theorist, recounts his silicon-gate breakthroughs and shift from engineering to the study of qualia. He describes a mystical awakening, develops a theory linking quantum pure states to inner experience, and explores free will, how conscious fields combine, and the ethical stakes of embracing interiority.

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ANECDOTE

Faggin's Sudden Awakening Experience

Federico Faggin described a sudden awakening in 1990: a scintillating white light, overwhelming love, peace, and the sense of being both inside and outside his body.
The experience lasted minutes, produced bodily sensations (heat, tingling), then translated into words that guided his later theorizing about consciousness.

INSIGHT

Consciousness Is Foundational Not Emergent

Consciousness and free will must be fundamental, not emergent from the brain, because subjective experience cannot be derived from purely physical signals.
Faggin reached this by combining his awakening with 20 years of introspective study and physics knowledge to form a foundational hypothesis.

INSIGHT

Qualia As Noncopyable Quantum States

Faggin links qualia to pure quantum states: qualia correspond to non-copyable quantum states in Hilbert space, knowable only from within the field.
He argues no-cloning and the complex amplitudes explain privacy and richness of inner experience.

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The Journey from Computers to Consciousness with Federico Faggin

Federico Faggin created the self-aligned MOS silicon-gate technology, which made possible memory chips, CCD image sensors, and the microprocessor. He designed the Intel 4004, 8008, and 8080 microprocessors, as well as the Zilog Z80 and Z8 processors. In 2010, he received the 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor the United States confers for achievements related to technological progress. He is author of Silicon: From the Invention of the Microprocessor to the New Science of Consciousness, and also Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature. His website is http://www.fagginfoundation.org/

Here he describes the arc of his pioneering career as well as the hypotheses he has developed regarding the nature of consciousness and the world of physics and computation.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death.

(Recorded on August 15, 2024)

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“Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature” https://tinyurl.com/yc2fepx9

FedericoFaggin.com Published books and other content

Fagginfoundaiton.org Consciousness Research Foundation

@fedefaggin on X, IG, TikTok, YT @federico.faggin on LinkedIn