There should be no doubt in the mind of the reflective sapiens that their biological basis is the least likely and most astounding object within all that they have known or imagined. But why? I force the reader to expand this sense of astonishment by (before leaping into a strict series of educational demonstrations) illustrating some elements that comprise their unarticulated amazement.
How does the brain found your conscious experience? Let’s assume that on one hand, the brain maps, encodes, and calculates all the information that forms the basis for those experiences, whether sensory, conceptual, or other. And on the other hand, let’s assume that the brain creates eddies in some unknown ether, that the brain is manipulating some attribute of reality that already exists, and contorting that generalized consciousness, into the consciousness of the individual. Given those two assumptions, how does the brain correlate the physical and non-conscious facts within itself, with the subjective and conscious powers within itself? How is meaning brought to life?
How does DNA encode for the entire human being? How can a series of chemical strings create an embryo, divide it into arms and muscles and eyes and what is above and inside and in between and younger and then older and sometimes dying and sometimes born? On one hand, let’s assume that the DNA is a series of blueprints for all the decision-makers that can deal with the variegations of life. And on the other hand, let’s assume that the DNA is capable of being by the decision-makers that surround it, knowing where to seek further advice, and how to act upon its wisdom. Given those two assumptions, how does the information – abstracted from the DNA – exist in a static form inside the DNA, such that it can teach its creations to read itself? If the DNA teaches the teachers, who teaches the DNA to teach?
How does the single-cell embryo become a recognizable individual? How can something that is singular, without divisions, divide into all its parts? Let’s assume on one hand, that there is an ability to coordinate between all the divisions and changes – perhaps within the DNA – that acts like an overseer in principle even if not literally. And let’s assume on the other hand, that every newly divided cell contains the same potential as all others, capable in principle (even if not pragmatically) of becoming an entire individual by itself. Given those two assumptions, how do dividing cells obey a single command structure, without any command structure existing amongst them?
The point of those three wonderings was to expand, even if only slightly, three particular axes for application: biology correlates meaning; biology correlates meaning between encodings and environments; biology disperses self-awareness amongst localized capacities for comparison. I’ll raise and explain these below.
First:
Explain how chance can create a single voice. E.g. of notch/delta.
Explain how epigenetics annotates descendants. E.g. acetylation.
Explain how morphogen gradients can create an array of instructions, first in general between two recipients, and then imagined with epigenetics determining reception.
Explain how a single blueprint for structural division can be used across manifestations by receiving locally determined corollary instructions. E.g. hox genes.
Explain how a single cell can become two different types according to epigenetics.
Explain how the change from embryonic stem cells to differentiated cell type occurs along a gradient of cell fate.
Now repeat but imagine that one has a single-family which needs to become a functional city.
Now repeat but imagining a single domain of knowledge which needs to become modern knowledge.
