Italian version

“When we fully understand quantum physics, we’ll be able to unite science and spirituality. In a nutshell, we’ll understand the meaning of life.”
This is the closing line of the documentary “Federico Faggin, the Man Who Saw the Future,” available on Raiplay. Hearing it gave me a sense of satisfaction, because the desire to unite science and spirituality is one of the driving forces behind the creation of esperienzedivalore.it.

Federico Faggin isn’t very well known. I, too, must frankly admit that I had never heard of him. His greatness as an innovator is perfectly summed up in a quote attributed to Bill Gates:
“Without Federico Faggin, Silicon Valley would be just a Valley.”
But who is Federico Faggin? The documentary on Raiplay clearly presents his life, his inventions, and, ultimately, his passionate interest in consciousness and spirituality. But let’s start from the beginning.

Faggin was born in Vicenza in 1941. At just nineteen years old, in his first job at Olivetti, he made a decisive contribution to the design and construction of the first transistor-based electronic computer. He earned a degree in physics and then moved to California; within a few years, he was the architect of two inventions that we can describe as revolutionary, as they paved the way for the large-scale adoption of microprocessors and computers:

• In 1968, he developed Silicon Gate Technology, which he used to produce the first integrated circuit (the foundation of modern microelectronics).
• In 1971, after being hired by Intel, he served as chief designer and led the development of the first microprocessor in history, the Intel 4004 (4-bit, 2300 transistors).

But he didn’t stop there.

• In 1974, he founded Zilog, a microprocessor manufacturer. There, he developed the Z80, which became the most widely used microprocessor in early home computers and video games.
• In 1986, he founded Synaptics, where he invented the technology behind touchpads and touchscreens, now widely used in smartphones and tablets.

At Synaptics, Faggin also worked on neural networks—and thus on the possibility of reproducing certain aspects of human consciousness using a computer. After a few years, as he explains in the documentary on Raiplay, he gradually moved away from the belief that consciousness is a product of the brain and came to the conclusion that human consciousness cannot be reproduced by a computer. In 1990, he had a mystical experience that gradually led him to decide to devote himself to the study of consciousness. These are the words he uses to describe what he felt:

An energy made up of joy, love, and peace—the very substance of which everything is made… Not only that, but my consciousness was within this energy… I was the world observing itself from my perspective.

From that time on, he devoted himself entirely to this new path of inquiry, which would lead him in 2011 to found, together with his wife, the “Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation,” dedicated to the study of consciousness. As a result of this intense and passionate activity, Faggin formulated an ontological postulate based on the idea that consciousness is a fundamental property of reality. This is the Postulate of Being:

One (the totality of all that exists) is dynamic, holistic, and seeks to know itself.

Starting from this postulate, Faggin explains that consciousness is the primary reality and that every individual life is a quantum field that is part of the totality of Being. This postulate provides the foundation for certain principles of quantum physics, such as nonlocality and the subjectivity of experience.

I conclude by sharing my wonder and joy at seeing that Federico Faggin, after a rich and intense career as a giant of science and technology, has arrived to a vision having a lot in common with the one of Soka Gakkai Buddhism.

• The Being that Faggin describes as “an energy made of joy, love, and peace, which is the substance of which everything is made” is, in other words, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo—the fundamental law that permeates the entire universe, from the infinite past to the infinite future.
• In Soka Gakkai Buddhism, the ninth consciousness is identified as the very life of the universe; it is eternal. The ninth consciousness is Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Thanks Federico, the bridge between science and spirituality already exists!

You can send your comment to info@esperienzedivalore.it, I will be happy to respond.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)