Mind from Matter: The Chemical Connection

Abstract

One of life's most extraordinary features is its mental dimension, one whose origin and essence remain a deep scientific mystery. Given the modern scientific view that life emerged from non‐life, how was ‘dead’ matter able to take on mental capabilities? In this Review we report on two recent scientific discoveries, which together offer new insights into the possible physical basis of mind and the origin of ‘self’. First, recent thinking in microbiology now contends that simplest life manifests highly developed cognitive capabilities, suggesting that such capabilities were initiated early in the evolutionary process, likely within chemistry. Second, the recent discovery of a new dimension within chemical space of energized dynamic kinetically stable (DKS) chemical systems appears able to explain the emergence of systems with distinct non‐physical characteristics, including cognition and ‘self’. These two developments, when coupled to a physically based description of the evolutionary process, offer a feasible means of outlining the physical/chemical basis for life's mental state and a means for its emergence. A door toward resolution of the seemingly intractable ‘mind from matter’ problem may have opened up.

On the Emergence of Autonomous Chemical Systems through Dissipation Kinetics

“…A consequence of these properties is that the whole EAS defines an inside/outside separation defined by the dependent state of the whole system with respect to its environment. Changes in the system can act on this dependence state, which, coupled to evolutionary processes, can be analyzed as seeds of cognition, opening a perspective which suggests that the gap between the physical sciences and the non-material facets of life can begin to close [95][96][97]. Moreover, the peculiarity of EASs like the one in Figure 4D, corresponding to kinetically stable situations, whether the system is present or not, was noted above.…”