From Life to Mind: 2 Prosaic Miracles?

Abstract

The origin of life from matter and the subsequent emergence of mind were fundamental events. Our work is based on the idea that the chemical/genetic/mathematical framework developed over the last 150 years to explain the first is conceptually similar to the neural/psychological/mathematical framework needed to understand the second. First we outline the first, seemingly adequate, framework and then we explain some related, unusual and controversial, ideas that offer a “translation” into neural terms. The core idea is that the extraordinary, mysterious and qualitatively unique features of “life” and “mind” arise because of extraordinary (though completely explicable) levels of accuracy of the relevant elementary processes (base-copying and synaptic strengthening). The living and the mental might hinge on prosaic, though accurate, lower-level machinery.

Keywords