Self-Organizing Universe (Part 1)

Two philosophical approaches to understanding the nature of consciousness in the universe predominate: panpsychism in which consciousness is conceived as pervading the universe at all levels, and emergentism in which consciousness is understood to arise from the universe when the universe becomes sufficiently complex (and organized in such a way) to produce it. Of course, each of these categories subdivides into still more nuanced versions and perspectives. Where emergentism is concerned, particularly, there is the obvious stance that it is the nervous system, or perhaps the brain in particular, that represents the complexity and organization necessary to create consciousness; however, other perspectives suggest that it is not the brain per se, or even nervous systems in general that are required, but that life in its most basic form, i.e. the cell, is sufficient and necessary for rudimentary forms of consciousness.

This emergentist perspective immediately calls to mind the terminology of complexity theory, in which emergence specifically refers to properties and structures that arise, bottom-up, from the self-organization of interacting members of a complex system (rather than through top-down planning and design). Indeed, the two uses of the term are sometimes similar. Thus, some emergentist positions take complexity theory itself into account, suggesting that consciousness is a macro-scale emergent phenomenon arising from the interacting neuronal networks of the (central) nervous system at a lower level of scale.

However, in general, when applied to the philosophical question of consciousness the word emergence is used with less precision than when it is used as a technical term in complexity studies. One should therefore be cautioned in concluding that a complexity theory perspective on consciousness necessarily supports the emergentist point of view. It is our position that, in fact, a careful application of complexity principles to analysis of self-organization across all levels of scale – down to the smallest, Planck scale of existence (approximately 10-35 meters) – suggests that at least some simple elements of consciousness are found wherever there is existence.

These elements we will specify as 'sentience' and, for the purposes of our discussion, below, sentience is here preliminarily defined as:

1. sensing of the surrounding environment, 

2. complex processing of the information derived from what is sensed, (i.e. via mechanisms of processing that fulfill the criteria of a complex inclusive of limited randomness or quenched disorder),

3. generation of a response.

These activities and the elements or structures that mediate them will be further defined, below, as the discussion proceeds. Our analysis will then proceed to consider how complexity theory actually points away from an emergentist perspective toward a panpsychist position: 'sentience everywhere'. We note that sentience does not imply self-consciousness, which may be confined to higher species. Self-consciousness implies sentience but not necessarily the other way around.

Neil Theise, MD is a practicing pathologist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he is Professor of Pathology and of Medicine. He is considered a thought leader in fields of liver diseases, liver stem cells, and adult stem cell plasticity. In recent years, interests in complexity theory applications to biology have led to novel insights regarding stem cell biology, non-Western models of the body, science-spirituality dialogue, and consciousness studies. He is a Senior Student at the Village Zendo in NYC.

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