The Neuron Is a Self Contained Mind

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The dynamics of a neuron are the same as the dynamics in a single celled creature like a bacterium or an archeon or a protozoa. Each of these have minds too, and their minds are not simple statistical mechanisms. There's la when i say non linear, that means there's feedback loops that maybe one day, for your example of a neuron, may have a completely different output on another day. Itte neron on its own is a mind that is learning and changing. And so statistics is a decent model. But if you really want to get at what's actually happening under the hood in a deep way, the statistics cannot get to ther. You need, you

Why do you exist? How did atoms and molecules transform into sentient creatures that experience longing, regret, compassion, and even marvel at their own existence? What does it truly mean to have a mind―to think? Science has offered few answers to these existential questions until now.

Michael Shermer speaks with computational neuroscientist, Ogi Ogas, about his unified account of the mind that explains how consciousness, language, self-awareness, and civilization arose incrementally out of chaos, and how leading cities and nation-states are developing “superminds,” and perhaps planting the seeds for even higher forms of consciousness.