Mind and Matter Reunited
Brian Josephson’s Call for a New Physics of Organised Complexity
(ChatGPT drafted this Substack article in response to S. Ji’s following request:
”Brian Josephson (https://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/) has been leading the Mind-Matter Unification Project at Cambridge University for a long time. The latest Mind–Matter Unification Project lecture, entitled <Taking into account Organised Complexity could Initiate a New Era in Physics>, is now available on YouTube. Can you draft a Substack-ready article on the essential points of the mind-matter unification theory of Brian Josephson?”)
How one Nobel laureate challenges reductionism and urges us to place biology, meaning, and consciousness back into the foundations of science.
1. A New Kind of Physics
When physicist Brian D. Josephson received the 1973 Nobel Prize for discovering the Josephson effect — the quantum tunneling of supercurrents — he was celebrated as one of the brightest stars of 20th-century theoretical physics.
But in the decades since, Josephson has turned toward a far deeper question:
Can physics ever be complete without explaining mind?
Through his long-running Mind–Matter Unification Project at the University of Cambridge [1, 2], Josephson has argued that consciousness, meaning, and organised complexity are not late-emerging byproducts of physics but co-fundamental aspects of reality His latest lecture “Taking into account Organised Complexity Could Initiate a New Era in Physics,” available on YouTube [3], reaffirms that position in bold terms:
“If we take the principles that underlie the organisation of complex systems seriously, rather than treating them as emergent curiosities, we may discover a new foundation for physics itself.”
2. From Equations to Organisms
Josephson begins with a critique of physics as it stands.
Modern science, he argues, excels at explaining the parts, but not the patterns. Reductionist models treat life and mind as afterthoughts — epiphenomena emerging from inert matter.
Yet when we look at nature, we see systems that organize, adapt, and communicate: molecules forming cells, neurons forming minds, and societies forming cultures. These processes are meaningful, not merely mechanical.
Physics has largely ignored this level of “organised complexity,” Josephson says, because it cannot be expressed easily in linear equations. But this oversight may be holding us back from the next great synthesis — one that unites physical law with biological law and even mental law.
3. The Logic of Life as the Logic of the Universe
At the heart of Josephson’s argument is a simple but radical inversion:
Instead of assuming that biology derives from physics, we might view physics as a special case of biology — or more precisely, as a manifestation of living organization at universal scale.
This inversion has three consequences:
Coordination precedes causation.
The universe behaves more like a symphony than a billiard table: individual parts act in coherence with the whole.Meaning and feedback are fundamental.
Information is not just data transmission but interpretation — a process more akin to biological signaling than mechanical computation.Life and mind reflect cosmic principles.
What we call “life” may simply be the universe’s way of organizing itself through self-reference and adaptive selection — processes that operate across all scales.
4. Diagram: The Bridge Between Mind and Matter
Figure 1. Josephson’s conception of “Organised Complexity” as the mediating bridge between Matter and Mind — transforming dualism into a dynamic triad.
This triadic view contrasts sharply with Cartesian dualism (Mind vs Matter). For Josephson, complexity itself — with its self-organizing, interpretive character — provides the missing link that unites both sides of the equation.
5. A New Era in Physics
Josephson calls for a paradigm shift: a biological turn in physics.
“When we take into account the organised complexity characteristic of life,” he says, “we open the door to a physics that includes mind as well as matter — not as an afterthought, but as a partner.”
This vision does not discard mathematics — it completes it. Just as Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism, and Einstein unified space and time, Josephson aims to unify mind and matter through the universal principle of organisation.
In this “New Era,” physics would combine:
The mathematical precision of equations,
The biological logic of feedback and adaptation, and
The philosophical depth of meaning and consciousness.
6. Challenges and Courage
Josephson’s pursuit of this synthesis has often been controversial. His willingness to explore parapsychology, consciousness studies, and non-mechanistic systems has led some peers to brand him a heretic.
Yet Josephson remains undeterred. “Orthodox science,” he has remarked, “is excellent at solving the puzzles it defines — but it may have defined the wrong kind of puzzles.”
The point is not to abandon physics, but to liberate it from self-imposed boundaries.
7. Connections with Emerging Fields
Josephson’s ideas resonate powerfully with current research trends:
Biosemiotics [4]— treating life as networks of signs and interpretations.
Complexity Science — exploring emergent coordination beyond reductionism.
Quantum Biology — uncovering coherence phenomena in living cells.
Process Philosophy — Whitehead’s vision of reality as continual becoming.
Integrated Information Theory — modeling consciousness as causal integration.
All of these can be seen as tributaries feeding into Josephson’s larger current: the reunification of mind and matter.
8. Editor’s Note: Connection to the Geometry of Reality (GOR) [5, 6]
(by Sungchul Ji)
Josephson’s framework aligns strikingly with the Geometry of Reality (GOR) model S. Ji has proposed.
In GOR, reality is represented as a cube of triadic axes — Matter (m), Mind (M), and Spirit (S) — whose interactions generate all observable phenomena. The region where these three dimensions intersect corresponds precisely to Josephson’s organised complexity: a dynamic zone where physical energy (E), informational structure (I), and consciousness (C) co-emerge.
This triadic field also echoes the Gnergy Principle of Organization (GPO) [4, pp. 33-34], in which Energy and Information combine to generate Order, and the IRVSE mechanism (Iterative Reproduction with Variation and Selection by Environment) [5, 6], which represents the universal engine of evolution and creativity.
Josephson’s call to integrate biological and mental principles into physics thus converges naturally with GOR’s vision:
Reality is not composed of matter alone but of gnergiton — the inseparable unity of energy and information operating under the guidance of mind [6].
Both frameworks share the conviction that mind is not an epiphenomenon but an organizing principle of the cosmos.
9. Why It Matters
If Josephson is correct, consciousness is not a fleeting epiphenomenon of brain chemistry but a cosmic property — a principle woven into the very fabric of physical law.
Such a realization could transform not only physics but also our understanding of life, meaning, and human purpose.
The “New Era” Josephson foresees would be one in which:
Physics speaks to biology.
Science dialogues with philosophy.
Matter, mind, and meaning are seen as one dynamic continuum.
10. Closing Reflection
For over half a century, Brian Josephson has been asking the question most physicists avoid: What if mind is as fundamental as matter?
His answer — that organised complexity [7, 8, 9] may be the key to a true unification of the sciences — invites us to reimagine reality itself as a living, evolving, and meaning-bearing whole.
And in doing so, he may be guiding us toward what Einstein once called “the next great synthesis.”
References and Further Reading
[1] Josephson, B.D. Mind–Matter Unification Project, University of Cambridge —
https://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/
[2] Josephson, B.D. (2015). Biological Observer-Participation and Wheeler’s “Law without Law.” arXiv:1409.2168.
[3] Josephson, B.D. (2024). Taking into account Organised Complexity Could Initiate a New Era in Physics (YouTube Lecture).
[4] Ji, S. (2018). The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter. World Scientific Publishing.
[5] Ji, S. (2025). The Geometry of Reality (GOR): A Triadic Framework for Matter,
Mind, and Spirit.
https://622622.substack.com/p/geometry-of-reality
[6] Ji, S. (2025). Conscio-Genesis, Enzyme Catalysis, and Quantum Processes (Revised by adding the missing Figure 2).
[7] Ji, S. (2019). The Planck-Shannon classifier (PSC) as a novel method to study organized complex systems of Weaver. A short talk presented at the 122nd Statistical Mechanics Conference, Hill Center, Busch Campus, Rutgers University, Piscataway, N.J., December 15, 2019.
[8] Weaver, W. (1948). Science and complexity. American Scientist 36: 536-544.
[9] Ji, S. (2012). Info-Statistical Mechanics and the Gnergy Space. In: Molecular Theory of the Living Cell: Concepts, Molecular Mechanisms, and Biomedical Applications. Springer, New York. Pp. 102-104.
This is not necessarily related to this presentation. However, this is a physics question that I was wondering if you have any comments. It is in Geology and Geophysics.
It is about an article by the brilliant physicist Konstantin Meryl and entitled Earth Expansion by Neutrino Power. My simple logic always thought that the Earth was expanding. It is obvious seeing maps, yet it was always considered wrong and continental drifts was the only answer. https://www.k-meyl.de/go/Primaerliteratur/earth-expansion-by-neutrinopower-jgg-1000219.pdf
Then years ago researchers said we never could replace brain cells- that seemed wrong, we can regenerate most everything.. In a round about way this demonstrates intention from many sources, such as biological, mental, and the somatic soul. Perhaps in its own way the Earth is similar in some context.
Relativity is the quantization of time disguised as the square root of -1 or i, with it’s solutions being white and black holes and Euler’s identity representing fundamental consciousness, t=0=e^(ipi)+1, forever a moment in the present, with dark energy (e^(ipi) or -1) being the nonlocal hidden variable or “spooky action at a distance” entangled to reference frames of consciousness and underlying quantum field responsible for the collapse of the wavefunction of time and determining the experience of spacetime and expansion of the universe, which is fundamentally conscious, as we are physical and mental manifestations of attributes inside the mind of God, found in the holy books. Potential solutions to back those claims, including the revelation of consciousness and merger of mind and matter is on my account @itothepowerofi on X.
https://x.com/itothepowerofi/status/1974541813915476264