God's Debris
God's Debris: A Thought Experiment is a 2001 novella by Dilbert creator Scott Adams. The introduction disclaims any personal views held by the author, "The opinions and philosophies expressed by the characters are not my own, except by coincidence in a few spots not worth mentioning."
God's Debris espouses a philosophy based on the idea that the simplest explanation tends to be the best. The book proposes a form of pandeism and monism, postulating that an omnipotent God annihilated Itself in the Big Bang, because an omniscient entity would already know everything possible except its own lack of existence, and exists now as the smallest units of matter and the law of probability, or "God's debris".
Synopsis
The main character, the Avatar, defines God as primordial matter and the law of probability. He offers recommendations on everything from an alternative theory for planetary motion to successful recipes for relationships under his system. He proposes that God is currently reassembling himself through the continuing formation of a collective intelligence in the form of the human race, modern examples of which include the development of the internet; this is related to the idea of the Omega Point. In the introduction, Adams describes God's Debris as a thought experiment, challenging readers to differentiate its scientifically accepted theories from "creative baloney designed to sound true" and to "ry to figure out what's wrong with the simplest explanation".Levels of consciousness
The chapter "Fifth Level" describes five levels of human awareness, or consciousness.- Level 1: Consciousness at birth: pure innocence, self-awareness.
- Level 2: Awareness of others, and acceptance of authority.
- Level 3: Awareness that some beliefs may be wrong, but not sure which ones.
- Level 4: Skepticism and adoption of the scientific method.
- Level 5: Avatar level, understanding that the human mind is a delusion-generating machine, and that science is another belief system, albeit a useful one.