On the occasion of the conference “Consciousness in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” which took place on April 22 at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, Professor Federico Faggin granted Pressenza an interview, which we reproduce below. The event was organized by Progetto Itaca,[1] an association with 18 local offices active in Italy that develops support projects for people suffering from mental health disorders and their families.
Interview by Giorgio Schultze, Barbara De Luca, and Thomas Schmid.
Prof. Faggin [2], internationally known for having invented the microprocessor and the touch screen, after a successful career as a scientist and entrepreneur, has increasingly devoted himself to quantum physics and the question of consciousness, arriving at the conviction that we are part-whole of One, endowed with free will, and that consciousness continues its path after the death of the body.
At the international level, a study group focused on your books, particularly “Oltre l’invisibile” [“Beyond the Invisible,”] starting from an analysis of the effects of the Anthropocene on the biosphere and humanity, has concluded that a minority is disrupting the balance of the biosphere, devastating relationships between peoples and individuals on a global scale. The concern of this study group and of us at Pressenza is: how can we, in a humane timeframe, reverse this situation, so that competition becomes cooperation and discrimination transforms into solidarity? How can we make people understand that we are truly “part-whole of One”?
This is perhaps humanity’s greatest challenge, and it can be done, but not in the way one might think—that is, by trying to change others. Instead, it can only be achieved by changing oneself. It’s not possible to change others, but if one manages to change oneself, one sets an example to others of what it means to change and [shows] that it is possible. So instead of words, which come and go, only facts remain. The essence of who one is is seen in how one behaves, in what one does. In any case, changing oneself is what makes people who attempt change much happier. We need nothing else.
This sends a strong message that inspires others to change. There is no other solution. There’s no need for a revolution, and waging war only continues the cycle of violence. There is no solution “outside” us. The solution, instead, is within us. It’s not easy and requires a lot of effort. But it’s a safe path, while the other is a path that leads “astray.”
You can’t change others. It’s also a matter of common sense, right? After all, my journey also began with the question “Who am I?” And then I said to myself, “I want to understand who I am.” But I didn’t go buy the books. I had to focus my attention within myself. And at a certain point I had an unexpected experience, one of those experiences that have a vital force within, that are more real than those we experience on the outside, experiences that have extraordinary meaning. Thanks to that experience, I understood who I am.
There are also certain dreams that are powerful and significant. They have the value of something strong and true, which cannot be fiction, cannot be a hallucination. If you ask a doctor or a psychiatrist, the typical psychiatrist doesn’t understand why they think we are a “machine.” I call scientism the idea that we are machines that repair themselves from the “outside.” Therefore, the psychiatrist’s “monkey wrench” is medication.
How do you explain your point of view to your fellow physicists and scientists in general?
I show them that what I say is also based on physics—not classical physics, but quantum physics. But they struggle to understand, because there’s also a problem of power. It’s not that they don’t understand. There’s resistance, because knowledge is power. Like religions, right? Knowing more than others is often perceived by scientists (not by real scientists) as power.
But science has an edge over religion, because what is known must be experimentally verifiable. Therefore, it is much more credible. Science has much more authority than religion because it must experimentally demonstrate what it asserts. So scientists believe they know more, because they have studied these things, they know them. But what science has done so far is study the external world. It has never given the value of truth to the internal world.
This is a fundamental error because they have decided a priori that there is nothing inside us. They are convinced that what we have inside is created only by matter. Note that when I say “inside us,” I don’t mean inside the brain or inside the body, because there too there is only matter. I am referring to a reality deeper than the material one we know.
The reality of the spirit, the reality of our consciousness, is not in space-time. It is another reality from which external reality emerges, that of objects moving in space-time. We must understand that physical reality is part of three fundamental and interdependent realities: matter, mind, and spirit. The mind is the computational aspect of the conscious field that we are, while the spirit is what experiences its quantum state in the form of conscious experience, that is, the sensations, feelings, and thoughts we experience within ourselves.
We know because we have an inner world. Consciousness is a property of the spirit. But where do spirit and mind meet? Faced with this question, the physicist stops short. He stops at mathematics. Because mathematics is a language made of symbols that convey information, but the meaning of symbols exists only in the physicist’s consciousness, not in mathematics. Science calls recognizing a symbol and knowing its probability information. The symbols of science have no meaning, while we call information “the meaning of symbols.” This is a very serious problem.
Physicists therefore use the word “information” with a different meaning than we give it. Then the problem was magnified by calling something “artificial intelligence” that isn’t intelligence. The first thing dictators do is use certain words, changing their meanings.
Unfortunately, this is happening today, and that’s why I want to make it clear that reality isn’t just physical, but also that of the mind and spirit, and all three work together. Physics describes only material reality and also attributes the computational aspect to matter.
In my opinion, quantum physics doesn’t describe matter, but rather the mind of the universe because it calculates the probabilities of what can possibly happen, not what will happen. Classical physics describes the matter of the universe. Finally, the spiritual aspect explains conscious experience, the meaning of experience, and conscious decisions about what must happen in space-time based on the probabilities calculated by the mind.
Do you think that at some point we’ll be able to rebuild that bridge between science and spirituality that existed in ancient times in so many parts of the world?
Of course. The problem is that fundamental values have been discarded by scientism, materialism, and reductionism. At first, they didn’t want to throw them away, because scientists were only interested in understanding how the material world worked. But then, little by little, they saw they could explain many things, and eventually they deluded themselves into thinking they could explain everything. With this mindset, they denied the profound spiritual and mental aspects, the intuitive aspects, and the aspects of true creativity that machines will never possess.
In the spiritual realm of consciousness, the fear of death is one of the greatest fears for all of us. In your research and the introspection you hope for all of us, is there a way to overcome this fear and recognize that matter ends, while consciousness and spirituality continue?
I’ve never actually had a great fear of death, but yes, I had a certain anxiety about what would happen, who knows… And also because I wasn’t yet ready to ask myself certain questions; perhaps I wasn’t yet old enough. But at 49, when I had the “awakening experience,” everything became clearer to me: We are not the body. It’s the body that dies, but we don’t die. That was one of the implicitly clear messages of my experience: death doesn’t exist; I am this field of love that exists even outside my body, a field that continues to exist.
When did you ask yourself these questions?
Years before my awakening experience, I had achieved all the goals I thought should make me happy, but instead I wasn’t happy. Fortunately, I had enough honesty left to admit that I was pretending to be happy. The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging that there is a problem. One is never so dishonest as to fail to acknowledge what one feels inside. Since it’s easy to identify with the actor playing the role of the successful person, it takes a great deal of honesty to recognize and accept that there is a problem.
The other key thing is to take responsibility for what happens in your life, whether good or bad. Instead of blaming others, you need to recognize that if you’re unhappy, you must have done something that created that discontent, or you must have done nothing when you should have done something.
In my case, doing nothing was the biggest problem. At a deeper level, this becomes indifference. You see evil and do nothing, you look and turn away. How come you didn’t see that that person needed a smile, a piece of bread?
In fact, when it comes to awakening consciousness, there’s a short circuit where you can no longer remain indifferent. Does indifference sooner or later turn into suffering?
Yes. When I recognized that I was responsible and had the honesty to accept it, with that same honesty I also said to myself: so I am the one who can and must solve this problem. Because I created it. If others create it, you can’t solve it, but if you create it, you can do something about it. Look, a year or two after accepting my responsibility, I had the experience that explained who I am.
NOTES
[1] Fondazione Progetto Itaca ETS – https://progettoitaca.org/ coordinates 18 branches throughout Italy, which, together, represent the leading organization committed to mental health in Italy. It believes that mental health disorders are treatable conditions and that everyone affected deserves timely help, a correct diagnosis, and effective treatment to lead a full and satisfying life, free from stigma and prejudice. It raises awareness in society to overcome stigma and prejudice. It disseminates accurate information to promote prevention and treatment guidance. It supports people suffering from mental health disorders and their families on the path to recovering well-being and a fulfilling life.
[2] Federico Faggin is an Italian physicist, inventor and entrepreneur. Born in Vicenza in 1941, he has lived in the United States since 1968. He was the project leader and designer of the Intel 4004, the world’s first microprocessor, and the developer of silicon gate MOS technology, which allowed the manufacturing of the first microprocessors, dynamic EPROM and RAM memories and CCD sensors, the essential elements for the digitalization of information. In 1974 he founded Zilog, with which he created the famous Z80 microprocessor, still in production. In 1986 he co-founded Synaptics, the company with which he developed the first Touchpads and Touchscreens. In 2011 he founded the Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the scientific study of consciousness, with which it sponsors theoretical and experimental research programs at American and Italian universities and research institutes. In 2019, Mondadori published Silicio; [he also published] Irriducibile (2022) and Oltre l’invisibile – Dove scienza e spiritualità si uniscono (2025) [ Silicon, Irreducible (2022) and Beyond the Invisible – Where Science and Spirituality Unite (2025)]: “Science and spirituality can produce something immeasurably more powerful than their sum, just as the union of an electron and a proton creates a hydrogen atom.” “We are parts-wholes of ONE, in which everything is interconnected (holistic), with free will and who wants to know itself.” “When the body dies, … the individual consciousness looks around and realizes that it exists in another reality (a broader consciousness) whose existence it had forgotten.”
