From: jimruttshow8596
The discussion explores the nature of consciousness and sentience through the lens of Terrence Deacon’s work, particularly his book Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter [00:04:31]. Deacon’s approach emphasizes the role of “absence” and emergent properties in understanding these complex phenomena [00:06:16].
Absence as a Foundational Concept
Deacon argues that absence is implicitly present in almost everything done in the sciences, yet it hasn’t been fully integrated into physical theories or theories of mental experience [00:06:29]. This concept extends to purposes, meanings, and values, which are “about something that’s not present” [00:07:23]. The difficulty in incorporating absence is compared to the historical struggle with the concept of zero in mathematics, which, once accepted, enabled new mathematical systems like calculus [00:09:03].
The problem of absence relates to how life itself is maintained; living things constantly do “work” to resist the natural tendency towards dissipation and the increase of entropy [00:13:34].
Emergence and Dynamical Hierarchies
Emergence is defined as a sudden, qualitative change that appears discontinuous from what came before it [00:23:00]. Examples include the origin of life or the formation of salt from sodium and chlorine [00:23:16]. Deacon suggests thinking about emergence not as adding something, but as something being removed or constrained, where “by virtue of its absence something new is possible” [00:28:45].
Three levels of dynamic processes are introduced:
- Homeodynamics: Processes that are “orthograde” (going with the flow), spontaneously tending towards homogenization or equilibrium, requiring no work to occur [00:39:32] [00:40:21]. These are pervasive in the non-biotic world [00:46:08].
- Morphodynamics: “Contra-grade” processes (going against the flow, requiring work) that generate order and regular forms, such as whirlpools or snow crystals [00:41:09] [00:42:12]. These are rarer than homeodynamic processes [00:46:12]. They tend to be self-destructive, speeding up the dissipation of the gradients that make them possible [00:18:09].
- Teleodynamics: The highest order of emergence, where two or more morphodynamic processes are balanced against each other in such a way that they prevent their own dissipation, thereby “maintaining that order from destroying itself” [00:19:01] [00:44:51]. Teleodynamic processes are oriented towards an “absent end,” such as maintaining existence, repairing damage, or reproduction [00:43:51]. This means living things are constantly finding ways to keep from going out of existence, working “contra-grade to the tendency that they have by their very life processes” [00:45:34]. Teleodynamic processes are exceedingly rare in the cosmos but, once they occur, they can amplify and spread [00:47:56].
Autogenesis as a Model for Teleodynamics
The “autogen” model is a thought experiment demonstrating a simple teleodynamic system. It involves two morphodynamic processes:
- Reciprocal catalysis: Two catalysts (A and B) mutually generate each other, leading to a rapid, self-accelerating production of more catalysts until raw materials are exhausted [00:51:56]. This is a self-undermining process [00:51:50].
- Capsid (shell) formation: Molecules spontaneously stick together to form a regular, crystal-like container, which also slows and stops as materials are used up [00:54:31].
In the autogen, the catalytic process generates molecules that form the capsid, and the capsid, by containing the catalysts, prevents their diffusion and maintains their potential for interaction [00:55:10] [00:56:07]. This creates a self-repairing and self-reproducing system where constraints (absences) are passed on, representing “information about how to maintain the ability to generate this information yet again” [00:59:51]. This dynamic interplay of opposing processes is generative, akin to Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) in AI [01:00:57].
Sentience: The Simplest Form of Awareness
Deacon defines sentience in a very broad sense, beginning with the autogen model [01:17:02]. For an autogen to persist, it needs a supportive environment. If its capsule surface has shapes that weaken it when useful molecules stick to it, causing it to break apart in an environment rich with raw materials, and remain stable in unsupportive environments, it exhibits sensitivity to its environment [01:18:41].
This “differential reactivity” that maintains self is the simplest form of sentience [01:20:10]. It’s an organization that divides the world into “what’s good for me and what’s bad for me,” even without conscious knowledge [01:20:30]. This is what allows for “normative chemistry” – chemistry that is good or bad, right or wrong, in the context of the system’s persistence [01:22:57]. Examples include plants growing roots towards water or leaves towards light [01:21:30].
Consciousness: Nested Teleodynamics
The concept of consciousness is seen as a higher level of emergence beyond simple sentience [01:23:28]. The key difference between a creature with a brain and one without (like most plants) is the ability to form a “representation, a model of what the alternatives in the world are” [01:26:22].
Brain development is linked to motility and the need for prediction [01:28:32]. Animals that move require brains to anticipate what’s ahead, processing information about potential environments rather than just reacting to immediate stimuli [01:29:21].
Deacon proposes that nervous systems are “micro teleo-dynamic processes within a larger teleo-dynamic process” – a “nested teleo-dynamic process” [01:31:27]. This means the brain’s consciousness is a teleodynamic process of teleodynamic processes, which is about the teleodynamic process of the body it’s part of [01:32:37]. This multi-layered emergence explains the “hard problem” of how mental phenomena arise from neurons, as mapping directly misses these intermediate layers [01:33:03].
“Every neuron, every cell in the body is teleo-dynamic, in a sense trying to maintain itself… neurons are trying to maintain themselves while being disturbed by other neurons… they are maintaining their own teleo-dynamics and yet they’re now organized into a network the network itself has a teleo-dynamic structure.” [01:33:29]
Consciousness, Feeling, and Attention
- Feeling as Primary: Following Antonio Damasio, Deacon asserts that “feeling is primary; everything about cognition is feeling” [01:35:36]. Feeling is fundamentally about “work,” resulting from a “contra-grade relationship” where a spontaneous tendency is disturbed [01:35:56].
- Attention as Work: Attention is a process that requires effort, reflecting a “contra-grade feature” [01:40:07]. The brain, unlike a computer, is constantly engaged in the work of maintaining itself and the body [01:40:35].
- Representations as Dynamics: Rather than static states or switch settings, representations in the nervous system are “dynamical forms” or “morphodynamics” [01:44:54]. When two morphodynamic processes (e.g., maintaining self-stability and processing external input) are balanced, it creates a higher-order teleodynamics, which is experienced as attention [01:46:04].
The Purpose of Consciousness
Deacon argues that the primary job of consciousness is to make things unconscious [01:49:04].
“Consciousness is a process that’s trying to undo itself all the time, trying to make things unconscious. Why? Because you can’t be conscious all the time, you’ve got to resolve this, you’ve got to set things up, you’ve got to adapt moment to moment, second to second.” [01:49:09]
This is exemplified by unconscious automaticity in skills like playing tennis or the constant sensory input from one’s toes that is usually not consciously processed [01:47:39]. The brain constantly expects and balances these inputs, pushing them to an unconscious level because of the limited “processing bandwidth of consciousness” [01:49:25].
Addressing the Hard Problem of Consciousness
The “hard problem” of consciousness (Chalmers’ “hard problem”) refers to the difficulty of explaining why physical brain processes give rise to subjective experience (qualia) [01:51:21]. Deacon compares this to Zeno’s paradox, where more and more scientific detail about the brain doesn’t seem to bring us closer to understanding experience [01:52:22].
Deacon’s framework offers a solution by suggesting that the focus has been on the “wrong side of the story” [01:55:01]. Instead of seeking more “stuff” or quantum explanations, the key lies in understanding “how absences matter” [01:55:37].
“It’s not the synapses, it’s not the signals. It’s the dynamics. The dynamics defined by the constraints that they carry, and that they juxtapose and that they synergistically link with each other. It’s the absences.” [01:55:54]
This perspective posits that what “we are” is not merely the physical stuff, but a “dynamical system of constraints that keeps itself in existence” [01:56:39]. These absences (constraints) enable new kinds of “work” and new kinds of emergent constraints, driving the complexification that leads to phenomena like human cognition, morality, and ethics [01:57:31]. The very essence of what we are is an emergent process constantly producing new constraints, which are fundamentally new absences [01:57:45].