Consciousness, Amoebas, Believers, and Grand Central Station

The cock of the Senate crows loudly indeed upon this fragmented dunghill held together by the philosophically inclined and the ideas of their great leaders.

The Post Modern brain has been enveloped in the modern answer to philosophical questions of consciousness and mind: neuroscience. And so let the Senate allow another perspective to be brought into debate for just a moment.

Most of the mysteries of the mind and brain that troubled, divided, and excited philosophers for centuries are no longer cause for such debate. We, or rather they (they being the people who understand the mind--we being the laymen) now understand the connection to between the brain and mind as common fact.

Our brain makes "maps" of our body and uses these maps to construct our place in the world, make memories, and even emotions. All these things lead to the construction of a conscious mind, and some of these are even present in organisms as simple as amoebas. What unifies these things in the brain and the body is the need for life regulation - homeostasis.
(See Antonio Damasias' "Self Comes to Mind")

Perhaps now, Senators, where this point is heading will become clearer -- but perhaps not.

Even the amoeba must make some kind of decision that will lead it towards survival, development, reproduction, evolution. This by no means signifies its consciousness; this only elucidates the elementary roots of our own.

To oversimplify, consciousness forms from a basic need to maintain internal and external bodily homeostasis. We evolved beyond elementary brain activities to something that constitutes consciousness because of the social and cultural constructs of human existence – the need for interaction, to create mental records, build relationships, form memories, and collaborate with each other as we move through life together (because, as evolution has shown, it is together that we prosper most).

“With their collapse of a communal framework people can no longer defeat the feelings of insecurity and uncertainty by belonging to a compact whole.” (Thanks wikipedia’s “True Believer” article)

Now to get back to the Senatorial matters at hand.

There is an existential moment, at a certain hour of each day, all over the world, where the Nietzschian herd is observed and felt intensely by those keen enough to pick it out: the morning commute.

The cattle are transported from the pasture to the farm. Herded along each day, sometimes physically prodded and pushed (Japan) to fit into their transport systems, they are uncomfortable, but they don’t put up much of a fight because it’s early and they’re fatigued, and they know it must be done because that is what is done every day and it has become a habit for them.

So we are presented with another kind of “mass movement” – a communal mass movement that is the movement and algorithms of day-to-day life, a part of our collective consciousness.


That we have been able to break down such a daunting philosophical motif of consciousness to scientific terms and simplified organisms may at first seem cause for despair among students of philosophy such as ourselves. But despair not! The Post Modern sees that many questions are still unanswered; the brain retains its beautiful mystery. The goal remains to break free from the herd in a way such as to be recognized, but not in such a way as to be wholly separate, for that would surely lead, as history itself has proven (and current events are showing now), to self destruction.

This is a cause to get behind. This is cause enough to be a True Believer.