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Consciousness, crosstalk, and the mereological fallacy: an evolutionary perspective
1Division of Epidemiology, The New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University, Box 47, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, USA. Wallace@nyspi.columbia.edu
Physics of Life Reviews
|September 4, 2012
Summary
Contemporary neuroscience often isolates the brain, overlooking the organism. This study proposes that consciousness and slower biological processes like immune function share evolutionary roots in information processing, using principles from communication theory and thermodynamics.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Evolutionary Biology
- Information Theory
- Thermodynamics
Background:
- Contemporary neuroscience frequently decontextualizes neural processes, attributing organism-level functions solely to the brain.
- Consciousness is often evolutionarily exceptionalized, separate from other biological functions.
- The living state inherently involves cognitive processes across all organizational levels.
Purpose of the Study:
- To challenge the decontextualized view of the brain and consciousness in neuroscience and evolutionary biology.
- To propose a unified framework for understanding consciousness and other biological processes as emergent from information processing.
- To introduce novel analytical methods for studying these complex biological information systems.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of information flow and processing across biological scales, from cellular to organismal.
- Application of principles from communication theory, including asymptotic limit theorems.
- Integration of concepts from nonequilibrium thermodynamics and free energy to model biological information.
- Development of 'dynamic regression models' for data analysis.
Main Results:
- Identified shared evolutionary origins for consciousness and slower biological processes (e.g., immune function, gene expression) through exaptation of information transmission.
- Demonstrated that biological information processing is constrained by fundamental principles akin to those in communication theory.
- Established information as a form of free energy, enabling thermodynamic analogies for biological systems.
Conclusions:
- Consciousness and other biological regulatory processes are not exceptional but emerge from fundamental principles of information processing.
- A unified, context-aware approach is necessary for understanding the brain and biological systems.
- Dynamic regression models offer a powerful tool for analyzing complex biological information dynamics.
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