Emergence, Brains, and Us
Yesterday Laura Civitello and I had breakfast and she asked, “What is emergence?” Laura has an excellent vocabulary but she has noticed that the concept’s been floating around in some new way.
I showed her this:
Emergence is what happens when the whole forms up from the parts.
A whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You can’t describe water by looking at hydrogen or a forest by looking only at a tree.
A big question in neuroscience is the “binding problem.” We know that different parts of the brain are concerned with depth perception, color, memory about cars, etc. How does the brain put it all together?
Walter Freeman studies whole brain activity using EEG leads on mats on people’s heads. Using nonlinear mathematics, he shows how “attractor basins” of form up (emerge), break down into chaos, and form up again. The entire brain shifts from “frame” to “frame” on the order of tenths of seconds.
While accomplished neuroscientists (including Francis Crick of DNA fame who recently passed away) argue that consciousness can be explained by tracking down the neurons, Freeman says that it’s like trying to describe a hurricane by looking at a molecule (I greatly paraphrased).
Neurons, tissues, and the whole brain are being studied but we are having difficulty with the next level: The level of conscious experience. The emergent level of the self.
We are accustomed to looking at ourselves psychologically, philosophically, spiritually, physiologically, socially, politically, etc. A holistic approach attempts to look at the self from all the directions. It’s still looking at the parts.
I describe the self differently. I look at the self as a system of processes. I ask different questions. I get different answers. The answers make sense. It’s more in sync with who we are. It works.
I’m so excited about it that I have to express it.
More later.