The Substrate

An operator's investigation into the largest system there is. The Substrate argues that reality is not matter that happens to obey mathematics, but an information process whose output we experience as a physical world. It takes the hard problem of consciousness, fine-tuning, quantum strangeness and the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics, and asks whether they are five puzzles or one.

It argues a strong position and names exactly where that position is weak. Two chapters near the middle exist only to attack the case the rest of the book builds. The reader is treated as an equal, not flattered.