Many scientists have come to recognize the essential role of information in life. For instance, origin of life researchers Sarah Walker and Paul Davies have described the need for “information to gain causal purchase over matter.” In other words, preexistent information is required to direct the arrangement of molecules.

The molecules will speak louder and louder and louder and finally we will have to surrender to the message that the molecules are sending to us. They say clearly, “Intelligent design is the source of life.”

In the context of foreign policy, cynics refer to The Blob. The Blob is the foreign policy of experts and hangers-on, and it takes on a life of its own. The scientific profession has a Blob as well. The Science Blob (hereafter “The S-Blob”) is in a panic. The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a very unwelcome spotlight on The S-Blob, and more than anything else, Blobs hate light.

When the ENCODE project first proposed, on the basis of direct empirical research, that 80 percent of the genome may be biochemically functional, a huge prediction of intelligent design was fulfilled. Evolutionary biologists saw the writing on the wall and were quick to fight back.

At one time, a science magazine’s typical contributors would merely ridicule the conscious universe. So why the thaw toward panpsychism over the past few years? Possibly, panpsychism offers a way to be a naturalist (nature is all there is) without the absurdities of physicalism (everything in nature must be physical).