We left the last part considering the very basic nature of action – how is it that we can do anything at all, such as lift a hand and turn a finger, let alone the deeper and more complex considerations of “see a target and throw a ball at it?”
Where has this all come from originally, this capacity for action which ultimately, as it would have to be, a capacity for communication between different parts of an organism? Godfrey-Smith suggests that it is in fact, even with some of the simplest and smallest forms of life, this already is demonstrated in a substantial capacity.
Even in the earliest work on E. coli, though, it seemed that something else was going on. They were also attracted to chemicals they could not eat….This may not sound like much, but it opens an important door. Once the same chemicals are being sensed and produced, there is the possibility of coordination between cells. We have reached the birth of social behavior
We do not usually think of clumps of bacteria as societies. And yet, in many ways, they are – even beings firmly without anything resembling a brain nonetheless have to survive through coordination. This might seem like spontaneous action, but it is spontaneity with purpose, and it can reveal itself in surprisingly complex behavior.
Continue reading Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea and the Deep Origins of Consciousness – a longread, part two
