The Inventor of the Microprocessor on Consciousness and Awakening | Federico Faggin

Jan 27, 2026

Federico Faggin, physicist and microprocessor pioneer who experienced a spontaneous awakening, blends scientific rigor with direct spiritual insight. He reflects on the 1990 transformative shift, why direct experience matters, consciousness as primary, free will and quantum ideas, the role of love and meaning, and how integration and cultural change might unfold.

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ANECDOTE

Spontaneous Awakening In Tahoe

Federico Faggin woke at night in Tahoe and experienced an overwhelming, physical sense of unconditional love, joy and peace that expanded his sense of self.
That spontaneous awakening made him realise he was the world observing itself and shifted his life's purpose toward understanding the experience.

INSIGHT

Consciousness As Fundamental

Start from consciousness and free will as fundamental postulates rather than trying to derive them from matter.
Quantum fields naturally map to private conscious experiences and non-algorithmic choices, explaining the wave-function collapse.

INSIGHT

Measurement As Interactional Choice

Quantum entanglement shows properties shared across systems that classical physics cannot explain.
Measurement is an interaction where observer and observed mutually decide which possibility manifests in space and time.

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In this conversation, I’m joined by physicist and microprocessor pioneer Federico Faggin for an exploration of consciousness, reality, and awakening. Federico is widely recognised for his role in shaping modern computing, yet after years of professional success he found himself deeply unhappy. In 1990, a spontaneous awakening experience radically shifted how he understood himself and the nature of reality. Rather than dismissing that experience, he spent decades integrating it with science, leading him to a view in which consciousness and free will are fundamental to the universe, not products of the brain. We talk about direct experience, science, meaning, and what all this might mean for humanity at this point in time.

In this conversation, we explore:

Federico’s background in physics and computing, and how his inner life didn’t match his outer success
Why professional achievement alone didn’t bring fulfilment
Federico’s spontaneous awakening experience in 1990 and how it changed everything
The importance of direct experience over concepts or beliefs
Why love is not something we find outside ourselves
How Federico developed his model of reality after his awakening
Quantum physics explained in clear, simple terms
A practical analogy for understanding the collapse of the wave function
The limitations of materialism and the flaws of “scientism”
Free will, the separate self, and what it really means to choose
The deeper purpose of the human experience
How suffering, war, and evil can be understood through this lens
Simon’s own kenshō experience and what followed
The difference between talking about awakening and living it
Why responsibility and honesty are essential for real awakening
The post-awakening “dark night” and integration
Why this moment in history feels pivotal
The relationship between fear, science, and belief systems
Why consciousness must be the starting point
The spiritual quickening happening now
What needs to change — individually and collectively
Why love, ultimately, matters more than fear

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