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

A New Way of Being

Simon Mundie

Education, Spirituality, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 523 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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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Transcript

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0:00.0	In this conversation, I'm joined by physicist and microprocessor pioneer Federico Fijin
0:05.6	to talk about consciousness, not as a theory but as something directly experienced.
0:11.8	Federico played a key role in the invention of the microprocessor and helped shape modern
0:17.4	computing, including AI. But despite extraordinary professional success, he found himself
0:24.1	deeply unhappy. And in 1990, a spontaneous awakening experience completely changed how he understood
0:31.9	himself, reality, and what actually matters. Rather than dismissing that experience,
0:38.6	Federico spent decades exploring it through physics,
0:41.9	eventually arriving at a view in which consciousness and free will are fundamental,
0:47.5	not something produced by the brain.
0:53.1	Federico, it's a pleasure to be with you again. How are you? My pleasure. Yeah, I'm fine. I'm good.
1:01.2	Good stuff. So we've had one conversation previously, and that was with Rupert Spira as well.
1:08.4	And there was something that you said during that conversation that
1:11.8	really stuck with me, which was the importance of having a direct experience. And since that
1:19.0	conversation, as you know, I have had a Ken show. And so I want to talk about experience,
1:27.1	the importance of experience, what it showed you,
1:30.4	what we've both learned from that and how that is important going forward.
1:37.2	But before we dive into that, I think it's important to introduce you for anyone who doesn't
1:41.8	know you, which is really you're a pioneer in the world
1:46.1	of modern computing. You were very directly involved in with the invention of the micro processor
1:55.8	and early large language models. So AI, you are recognized at the very highest level for all the work
2:02.0	that you've done. And yet, despite climbing that mountain and all the success and acclaim that came
2:08.4	with that, I know you were not happy. It did not provide the satisfaction that perhaps you
	...

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