Patterns All the Way Down

Patterns Everywhere

If you are curious about the universe, physics, and science, you have probably seen that there are recurring patterns everywhere. From large language models to quantum physics, we are always dealing with patterns. LLMs are trained on a large corpus of text, and they find patterns in it and then try to mimic those patterns. Even in the brain: certain specific patterns of neural activity cause a specific mental experience. But why is that? Why are there patterns everywhere in the universe rather than nothing?

A few years ago, I was reading a book written by Stephen Hawking claiming that our universe is based on simple rules governing how tiny particles interact with each other. The interaction of these tiny particles at the micro level creates larger objects with more complex rules — quarks, electrons, atoms, molecules, cells, and so on.

It's really interesting to see that when there is enough complexity, something new emerges from it. For example, in large language models, when you stack transformer blocks, you get reasoning out of that. Reasoning is an emergent property of that complexity. Let's get back to our universe: there's a question I keep coming back to — where do these rules come from? At a certain level of abstraction, we know that the rules come from a lower level of abstraction. How far can we go deeper? Quantum mechanics? String theory? Information theory?

Causality, Reversed?

One real problem is that we always see everything in causal order in time:

That is true for most cases in our macro world. But is it true at deeper, lower levels of abstraction — say, at the Planck scale? Can the causal order of some phenomena be reversed in time? (The cause of something happens after that phenomenon.)

Simulation Theory and the Regress Problem

Let's be honest — I am thinking of simulation theory as the most probable cause of this universe. At least for me, it makes more sense that those rules (at the Planck scale) were designed by a smart species. But if they simulated us, who simulated them? How far can we ask this question? If there is an infinite chain of simulated worlds, who simulated — or created — the first node, the root?

Ah, same mistake as in the macro world — causal order in time. Maybe it seems a bit silly, but in this thought experiment I am trying to think outside the box: what if these nodes, these creators, are not linearly aligned in time? What if the cause of the root of our tree is one of its leaves?

Then it looks like a loop! Ah, same silly question — who created that loop? There should be a boundary to this.

From a Chain to a Loop

That feels overwhelming, so let's get back to patterns.

Imagine a universe that produces intelligence. That intelligence eventually becomes capable of creating a simulation. Inside that simulation, another universe emerges, which eventually produces its own intelligence, which creates another simulation.

We could represent it as a chain:

Universe A
  ↓
Intelligence A
  ↓
Simulation B
  ↓
Universe B
  ↓
Intelligence B
  ↓
Simulation C
  ↓
Universe C
  ↓
...

There is no obvious reason for this chain to stop. We could keep asking the same question forever: who created the previous universe?

But perhaps we are making the same mistake again. We are assuming that every causal relationship must have a beginning.

What if the chain eventually connects back to itself?

Universe A
  ↓
Intelligence A
  ↓
Simulation B
  ↓
Universe B
  ↓
Intelligence B
  ↓
Simulation A
  ↓
Universe A

Now something strange happens. Universe A creates the intelligence that eventually creates Universe A. Which one came first? The question doesn't have an obvious answer, because there is no first node. The structure is no longer a line — it is a loop.

A Different Way to Ask the Question

And this is where the idea becomes much more interesting to me. Perhaps we should stop thinking about reality as a hierarchy that must eventually reach a fundamental layer. Maybe reality can contain loops between levels of abstraction.

At one level, matter creates life. At another level, life creates intelligence. At another level, intelligence creates models of reality. And perhaps, at some point, intelligence becomes capable of creating new realities. The higher level would then become responsible for creating something that exists at a lower level. The hierarchy would fold back onto itself.

This reminds me of Douglas Hofstadter's idea of a strange loop: a system in which moving through different levels of abstraction eventually brings you back to where you started.

And suddenly my original question — why are there patterns everywhere? — becomes even stranger. Maybe patterns are not simply things that exist inside the universe. Maybe the universe itself is a pattern. And maybe what we call a "fundamental law" is simply the pattern we see when we look at reality from a particular level of abstraction.

If that is true, then perhaps there is no final layer waiting underneath everything. There may only be another level. And another. Until, somehow, the levels connect back to themselves.

I don't know whether this says anything true about the actual structure of the universe. But it gives me a different way to think about the question.

Maybe the deepest question isn't "Who created the universe?"

Maybe it is: "What if there was never a first universe?"

If you'd like to discuss this — reach me at navid72m@gmail.com.