Mind & Matter Purpose, Value, Evolution, Consciousness, Sentience, Life & Emergence of Mind From Matter | Terrence Deacon | Episode 95
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Nov 7, 2022 
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The Self Emerges Inside The Self
- Animals add a neurological self inside the organism’s biological self by simulating bodily needs in relation to the world.
- Deacon calls this second-order teleodynamics and distinguishes subjective from vegetative sentience.
Brains Differentiate Where Computers Compute
- Computers manipulate externally assigned symbols, whereas living neurons maintain themselves while differentiating information.
- Deacon describes thoughts as dynamic musical patterns rather than assembled computational objects.
Feeling Comes Before Consciousness
- Deacon places feeling before reflective consciousness because organisms must sense threats to their continued existence.
- Neural experience emerges as dynamic attractors shaped by bodily metabolism and environmental interaction.