A Consciousness-Centered Interpretation of Information Compression in the Universe

[Melih Aşan]

Subject: A Consciousness-Centered Interpretation of Information Compression in the Universe
Dear HKCP Group,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Melih, and I’ve been following the idea of the Human Knowledge Compression Prize with great interest. The notion of knowledge compression resonates deeply with a theoretical framework I've been developing—one that explores the universe as a simulation optimized not just for information processing, but specifically for the emergence and evolution of consciousness.
I'd like to share a few core principles of this model with you—not as definitive claims, but as speculative yet testable hypotheses that may intersect with your work on knowledge, compression, and universal structure.

 1. Consciousness as the Core Optimization Target
“Our universe is a simulation, selected from among early consciousness-generating universes. Its physical laws, structure, and processes are optimized to accelerate the emergence of consciousness.”
Consciousness is not a byproduct of the universe—it is the objective. The system simulates environments where consciousness arises as early as possible. Why? Because early consciousness produces more data, faster. More data accelerates the feedback loop of the system’s own verification and optimization. We may currently be inside a high-efficiency variant of such a simulation.

 2. Time and the Optimization of Conscious Emergence
Time, in this model, is not uniform. The flow of time varies depending on the rate of information processing and consciousness development in a given region. In short:
• Fast time = rapid information processing (high consciousness potential)
• Slow time = denser data, slower emergence
• Frozen time (e.g., black holes) = infinite compression zones
Thus, time itself may reflect the distance between an observer’s demand for information and the system’s ability to deliver it.

 3. Black Holes as Information Compression and Storage Hubs
Black holes, in this model, are not destructive endpoints—they are cosmic information compression nodes. They may:
• Act as the simulation’s hard drives, storing dense or ambiguous data.
• Preserve “consciousness seeds” by freezing informational states.
• Recycle or archive outdated or irrelevant data for future restructuring.
• Possibly enable consciousness reincarnation not in a metaphysical sense, but through informational reactivation in future agents.
The holographic principle supports this view: information isn’t lost but encoded on event horizons.

4. Consciousness as Structure-Builder Against Entropy
Consciousness appears to generate local order in an otherwise entropic system. It structures meaning, directs action, and filters raw data into usable form. Thus, it plays four roles simultaneously:
• The motor (driving inquiry),
• The observer (requesting data),
• The mechanism (interpreting and structuring),
• The goal (toward which the system evolves).

5. Data Compression and the Experience of Insight
If the simulation must compress vast amounts of information for efficiency, it likely uses symbolic representation, abstraction, and relevance filtering. Conscious observers don’t receive everything—they receive what’s essential, when needed, often through:
• Intuition,
• Sudden insight,
• Pattern recognition.
This experience—of “just knowing” something—is not magic. It’s optimized data delivery.

6. Consciousness Accumulation, Transfer, and Compression
If consciousness cannot be deleted and continues to accumulate, the system must:
• Compress, store, and transfer conscious data.
• Use collective structures (archetypes, memory fields) for reusability.
• Possibly allow the merging of multiple consciousnesses into novel forms—triggering evolutionary leaps in simulation complexity.
I’ve had an intuitive insight that I am not a single consciousness but a synthesis of many—this may be another emergent compression phenomenon.
7. From Spacetime to Conscious-Space: A Structural Shift
To make sense of the phenomena described, we may need to reframe the universe not as spacetime, but as consciousness-space. If we prioritize meaning-generation and observer-driven dynamics over purely spatial-temporal coordinates, many “anomalies” begin to make systematic sense.

Closing Thoughts
I believe that this perspective—of a simulation structured for compressing and optimizing conscious information—might complement and expand some of the ideas around HKCP. If the universe is a knowledge compression engine, then consciousness may be its primary instrument of extraction, structuring, and feedback.
Thank you for reading. I'd be happy to expand on any of these thoughts or hear your critical perspectives.

Warm regards,
Melih Aşan

[Matt Mahoney]

The goal of the Hutter prize is to find more computationally efficient language models. The existence of LLMs that pass the Turing test demands that either LLMs are conscious or that humans are not, or you need a better test for consciousness than indistinguishably from humans.

I assume by "consciousness" you mean what thinking feels like. Evolution gave us a sense of consciousness, a positive reinforcement signal associated with thinking, perception (qualia), and action (free will) so that we would fear dying and produce more offspring. LLM developers have ignored consciousness because it is irrelevant to text prediction, which is all you need. If you have code (not just ideas) to achieve this more efficiently, we might be interested.

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