The Functional Mind

← The Functional Mind8 sept · 9 min

Lesson 13: The Atomic Structure of Consciousness

Lesson 13: The Atomic Structure of Consciousness8 sept9 min

Every brain inherits two entirely different streams of information — ancient genetic wisdom, and the real-time experience of an individual life — and has to bring both to bear on a single decision, right now, with nothing to arbitrate between them but itself.

That arbitration point is what consciousness actually is: the meeting place where deep-time and real-time information converge, weighed against each other by a single heuristic, producing a stream of decisions from the inside.

This meeting point isn't unique to humans, or mammals, or even vertebrates. It belongs to any animal with a centralized brain doing that job at all, scaled to how much each one actually has to weigh.

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Music by Brylie Christopher – full credits: Solo Brylie Christopher - Solo - Free Music Archive

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