CONSCIOUSNESS AT DIFFERENT SCALES

WHERE DOES CONSCIOUSNESS BEGIN?

Is Every Cell Conscious?

A video I recently came across made a rather emphatic claim: every cell in the universe is conscious. According to the video, new research suggests that consciousness did not begin with the brain, but was already present in the earliest cellular life forms, approximately 3.8 billion years ago.

That sounds spectacular. Perhaps even revolutionary.

But the scientific reality is more nuanced.

There is indeed a line of research exploring this possibility. The so-called Cellular Basis of Consciousness hypothesis proposes that forms of sentience and possibly consciousness may extend much further back in the evolutionary history of life than traditionally assumed. However, that is not the same as having empirically demonstrated that every cell is conscious.

There is also scientific criticism of this hypothesis. For example, it is difficult to distinguish between complex biological information processing and genuine subjective experience. The fact that a cell can detect changes in its environment and respond to them does not, in itself, mean that the cell experiences anything. A thermostat also responds to temperature, but we cannot therefore claim that a thermostat acts consciously.

I am not taking a position here on which side of this scientific debate will ultimately prove correct. The Fractal Framework, however, approaches consciousness as a possible emergent phenomenon. It takes this scientific discussion as a starting point and poses a further question.

THE QUESTION BEHIND THE CLAIM

For me, the most interesting question is therefore not:

"Is every cell conscious?"

But rather:

"If consciousness is an emergent phenomenon, where might it arise?"

We tend to associate consciousness with our own experience. We have a brain, a nervous system, thoughts, memories, emotions and a sense of self. From our human scale, it therefore seems almost self-evident that consciousness is connected to a certain degree of biological complexity. But why should we regard that scale as an absolute boundary?

A cell is organised. An organism is organised. A group of organisms can organise itself into a society. Societies form economies, institutions and civilisations. Technology, in turn, creates new networks in which information is collected, processed and exchanged on an ever-larger scale.

This does not mean that a society is conscious. Nor does it mean that an economy is some kind of brain. And it certainly does not mean that every organised structure automatically possesses consciousness. But if another level of organisation were to represent a form of consciousness, that form would not necessarily have to be organised in the same way as human consciousness. The way such a system processes information, enters into relationships and responds to its environment could be entirely different from our human experience of consciousness.

Even within our own human scale, people do not experience consciousness in exactly the same way. Every person processes information from the perspective of their own history, physical condition, environment and individual standpoint, and may therefore respond differently to the same circumstances.

If consciousness can arise at different scales, it is therefore not reasonable to take our own experience as the universal standard for every possible form of consciousness. This is where Scale Relativity plays a crucial role in this approach.

It illustrates how new properties can emerge when components enter into new relationships with one another and form a new level of organisation.

This brings us to Emergence.

CONSCIOUSNESS AS EMERGENCE

Within The Fractal Framework, consciousness is therefore not taken as the starting point of reality. Instead, it is explored as a possible emergent phenomenon. This distinction is important. The Fractal Framework does not claim that every cell is conscious. Nor does it claim that we already know when consciousness arises. It poses a different question.

If new properties can emerge from the organisation of information and relationships, could consciousness arise at multiple scales?

A possible form of [sentience] at the cellular level would not have to resemble human consciousness. It may even be that the concept of consciousness refers to qualitatively different phenomena at different levels of organisation. A cell does not have to experience reality in the same way as a human being.

But sentience could represent a possible initial form of a process through which consciousness continues to emerge within the biological scale.

A human being does not have to experience reality in the same way as a collective system that might potentially emerge at a larger scale. And if a form of technological consciousness were ever to arise, that too would not have to resemble human conscious experience. These are not conclusions. They are questions.

SCALE RELATIVITY

This is where Scale Relativity within The Fractal Framework comes into view.

What we experience as an individual entity from our own scale may, from another scale, be part of a larger organised process. A cell is part of an organism. A human being is part of a society. A society is part of larger economic, cultural and technological networks.

At every scale, the relationships change. And when relationships change, new properties can emerge as well. Perhaps, therefore, we should not only ask where consciousness begins, but also investigate at which scales consciousness might play a role.

That is a much broader question than whether a cell is conscious.

NOT A CONCLUSION, BUT AN OPENING

I therefore find the claim that every cell is conscious too emphatic. But I find the question behind it particularly interesting. Perhaps we have been looking at consciousness for too long from just one scale: the human scale.

It may be that consciousness only arises under very specific biological conditions. It may also be that forms of sentience exist that are far more fundamental than we are currently able to demonstrate. And it is equally conceivable that new forms of organisation can give rise to new forms of emergent properties.

We do not know yet.

And that is precisely why it is worth keeping the question open. The Fractal Framework does not attempt to provide an answer. Its purpose is primarily to offer a different way of looking at things:

Information → Relationship → Emergence → Scale

Perhaps the most interesting question is ultimately not:

"Is every cell conscious?"

But rather:

"What forms of organisation can give rise to consciousness, and at what scales can it emerge again?"

Dave Ruder