Medieval philosophy simply won’t do anymore.

 

 Descartes’, “I THINK THEREFORE I AM” might be the most profound sentence written.

It is a quintessential crystalized conception regarding our human condition, our psychology and our introspective human mind — but, it has zero to do with the physical biological world that we are embedded within, that created our body/brain, which in turn produces our mind full of thoughts.

Think about it, Descartes lived and died before real sciences existed! Descartes and his philosophy is embedded within the theological world dominated by the Catholic Empire, which he bowed to.

Today, David Chalmers is a genius professor of that intellectual tradition. A tradition that can’t seem to see past the bubble of our human mind. Chalmers and supporters insist that biology will never bridge the gap between matter and thought, at least not without admitting some metaphysical something.

For support of their Hard Problem belief, they have beautiful arguments with opinions and words piled on top of words, insisting the gap between matter and thinking cannot possibly be found upon 100% pure physical biological, scientific evidence, it requires …, well it requires something extra, they insist.

Then they look for consciousness within the brain and neurons, without explicitly recognizing that our introspective mind is but the extreme end of the consciousness spectrum.

  

Human introspective consciousness would be impossible without the support and substance of all those older lower layers of consciousness, that permeate our body, but that we aren’t directly aware of.

Serious science has been busy learning about these revelations and sharing with all who are curious.

We live in a new world reality, scientists have evidence mitochondria communicate and coordinate with each other — and they are within each cell! Intercellular awareness and communication is also a documented thing. Research into independent single celled creatures, are recording the same behaviors being documented in complex animals.

There has been a paradigm shift in biological sciences that smashes through all those quaint medieval Ego-driven notions of human exceptionalism, that theological and philosophical thinking are built upon.

Physical science has even unraveled the mystery of “Vitalism” and it isn’t sprinkled down upon Earth by God or anything else. It turns out to be a product of Earth herself!

“Vitalism” was invented over four billion years ago by chemistry, in partnership with Earth, time, and it is found in the Krebs cycle, where quite literally, geology and chemistry figured out how to harness electricity, thereby inventing biology. That is what life sprang from.

For details, read Nick Lane’s Transformer and his previous books. Further sources shared at the end.All of this requires a modern philosophy brave enough to blast through the entrenched faith based platitudes. Learning to vocally grapple with our Human Mind ~ Physical Reality divide, and to begin appreciating all that unfolds from that recognition.

Within our body, each of us possesses a genetic heritage going back over half a billion years. Our body is the product of all those untold successful generations piling one on top of the previous one, living, learning, surviving one day at a time, leaving offspring behind to take up the gauntlet. As they, in turn, turn heritage into legacy.

The science is making it clear that the best way to understand consciousness is as the inside reflection of our body communicating with itself.

When are those realities going to start getting enthusiastically discussed within philosophical circles?

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Here’s an introductory scientist author’s list

Robert Hazen: Mineral evolution on Earth, preparing the ground for biology

Nick Lane: Geology and chemistry harnesses electricity to create biology.

     Writer of the most excellent summary of “SELF”

Jack Szostak: The Early Earth and the Origins of Cellular Life

Michael Russell: On the Emergence of Life Through “Negative” Entropy Trapping

Arthur Reber: The “Cellular Basis of Consciousness” proposal — CBC

Michael Levin: Bioelectricity in development and regeneration, exploring cellular cognition.

Biology together with time, and chemistry and geology, that is Earth’s processes created creatures and environments and competition, in short, evolution.

Pageant of Earth’s Evolution, Index of noteworthy YouTube videos

Mark Solms — Regarding the Source of Consciousness

Antonio Damasio — Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain

Robert Sapolsky — Behavioral Biology with a Primatology background 

Honorable mention, author David Quammen’s The Tangled Tree of Life, a front and center history of the ‘70’s genetics revolution, that ushered in this golden age of biology.

These are some of the leading lights, though I never forget they require the support of thousands to help this work move forward.

 

Further reflections, Considering Things Science Can Explain About Consciousness

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What is the Self?

Let’s be honest with ourselves and start at the beginning.

For us and many other animals it starts with a unique egg and sperm and not so much a plan as an imperative.

Grow, survive, prosper.

The imperative within me came out of the momentum of half a billion years’ worth of 100% successful generations building upon each preceding generation. Always learning and refining.

“Self” begins with your biology interacting with the physical world around us. Senses + body + brain, constantly interacting with the real world, exterior and interior.

Let’s be realistic, how could any creature possibly feel like anything other than what it is? How can any creature not feel itself, since itself, and its own needs, are all that it knows?

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Can Other Things Be Conscious?

Panpsychism makes no sense.

What is the point of consciousness, when there aren’t any decisions to be made? Which is the case out in the cosmic realm of particles and energy and gravity.

Why On Earth Are You Even Aware?

 

This is condensed out of my previous exposition.

Blame it on Evolution.

If one is not aware, one gets eaten and never makes babies.

Think about this — you exist within an evolved incarnation of a body/brain that has gone through some half a billion years worth of development, each new generation building upon the previous one. Not one single miss during all that time, or you would not be here.

It gets wilder, the cells that make up your body — their history goes back over four billion years’ worth of successful reproductive cycles — all within a harsh and unforgiving biosphere. (see Nick Lane)

Awareness was required for single cells to succeed, even before the eukaryotic cells took it to a whole new level with their nucleus, organelles and complex insides. Science shows us that awareness, drifting into consciousness was one of biology’s first hurdles on the way to creating life. (see Arthur Reber)

Even single celled creatures require awareness, communication, command and control, along with a vessel to navigate.

The rest is Evolution.

This Pageant of Evolution forces us to realize our body started as something very simple. With each generation modeled by the trials and tribulations dished out during its, one day at a time, life cycle, before getting passed along to the next generation. Always building upon what was there before. Striving to do better.

Is it Folly Searching for Mind Within the Brain?

 Let me lay out the chain of reasoning that drives this challenge.

It starts with accepting the reality of this physically evolving Earth around me. I know I’m not imaginative enough to conjure up this vision of the miracle planet I live on. Seems to me, it has to be one or the other. If it’s real, it goes back billions of years, and evolution actually happened one day at a time.

Once that’s out of the way, the rest ought to be easy. Evolution, that is — change over time. First Earth, geology, and chemistry, working together with time — lots of time.

Then geology and chemistry figured out how to harness electricity, via the Krebs cycle and such.

I believe it’s honest to suggest this is the birth of biology. By and by, chemistry, geology, and biology created ever more complex “electrified” molecular components — that is, molecular biology — eventually figuring out how to colonize themselves. Up to here, it’s all pretty much spontaneous electro-magnetic interactions.

Airing-out David Chalmers Problem.

I also published this at medium.com, July 2, 2025

I come at these deep questions about human consciousness and origins from a biological bottom-up, evolutionary perspective.

One that, I believe, receives way too little attention. Especially in light of the past couple decades of amazing biological breakthroughs in understanding further layers of detail within our body/brain’s folds within folds of harmonic, cumulative, complexity.

From my Earth Centrist perspective Chalmers’ words personify human hubris and a curious tendency to expect Nature to prove itself to us.  Evolution has plenty to teach us about consciousness, why turn the philosophical cold shoulder to it?

As for me, my goal has been a graspable down to Earth understanding of mind, along with who I am, based on solid biology, evolutionary, scientific understanding along with a healthy appreciation for my animal nature and the Human Mind ~ Physical Reality divide.

Here I share representative quotes from David Chalmers and reflect on the blindspots. Then I invite critique and discussion. This is about a learning.

From: The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory ― David J. Chalmers

Chalmers: “There is nothing we know about more directly than consciousness, but it is far from clear how to reconcile it with everything else we know.

Why does (consciousness) exist?"

From within a biological bottom-up, evolutionary perspective, levels of consciousness exist because creatures had to differentiate between inside and outside; Creatures needed to develop ways to find and absorb good things; then to lock out bad things; and also to excrete bad things; while keeping good things within.

Learning how to recognize and maintain dynamic balance has been a life or death challenge since the beginnings of life itself.

Some form of internal awareness~consciousness has been a prerequisite for survival since the dawn of complex single cells — even more, as complex organisms evolved.