OMG! So even other life forms have consciousness?
"Man's character is his fate." -- Heraclitus (c.540-480 BC) Greek philosopher
"The Republican form of government is the highest form of government; but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature -- a type nowhere at present existing." -- Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) British author, economist, philosopher
"When I contemplate the natural dignity of man; when I feel ... for the honor and happiness of its character, I become irritated at the attempt to govern mankind by force and fraud, as if they were all knaves and fools, and can scarcely avoid disgust at those who are thus imposed upon." -- Thomas Paine (1737-1809) US Founding father
The new word phrase for the day! "Biosocial semiosis combines biosemiotics (meaning-making in life) and social semiotics (meaning in human culture), proposing that life itself, from DNA to complex societies, operates through sign interpretation and communication, blurring rigid lines between biology and culture to show how living systems inherently create, interpret, and exchange signs for survival and interaction, essentially viewing life as a continuous process of creating meaning." (go to bottom for specifics)
“Real freedom is the realization that you are not “the thinker“ – the mind is. The moment you start observing this thinker, a higher level of consciousness is activated. You then begin to realize there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond the its thinking. Our mind is only a tiny aspect of our intelligence. Then you also realize that all things that truly matter – – beauty, love, creativity, stress, adaption, and wisdoms like our global interdependence – – arise from below the brain and beyond the mind. Then you awaken to the reality that you are member of the human family. And learning to become the landlord of your mind yields immense power to be who you really are. Someone with agency who wants to make a difference in the lives and other life around you.
Human transformation and real freedom is recognizing that the
voice in our head - “the thinker“- is not who we really are. It is our
mind, the best tool we’ve had for a few hundred thousand years -for solving problems
related to our survival and thriving tribe.
The moment you start really listening to its ‘thinking’ you can activate
a profound level of consciousness within your body and ‘spirit of being’. This is who you really are. A sovereign
agent with hardwired intelligence and wisdom.
But over the last approximately 7000 years your mind overshadowed all
this. A mind simply learns things and
reacts. And sometimes thinks. But it has
limited intelligence – and resists the deeper thinking needed for solving the
root causes of most problems. The bodies’
consciousness, however, is for learning and applying wisdoms for solving
problems. This is nearly unlimited. And within
it- is where self-evident Truths can be found. Like Love, compassion, empathy, beauty, and a
sense of injustice. Most importantly a purpose
that goes beyond one’s own survival. It is
then you finally realize you are a human ‘being’ within our global human
family. Not just a thinking ‘being’ –
that has been using your mind’s creative capacity for generating other
identities and concepts. Too often these
creations usually become a problem for our entire species solve. Like the firm religious, political, economic,
or racial beliefs we now mass murder over.
Biological vs. abstract mental social concepts: How
politics, religion, economics, and nationalism endanger human survival. How the
Westphalian system became our existential threat in an age of WMD. And a hopeful view of AI as a potential
“wisdom amplifier.”
In layman's words...For a clear example of how the human mind overrode our body’s DNA - look no further than politics. Our biology is still tuned to protecting small bands of people when cooperation meant survival, fairness kept the peace, and nobody carried anything more dangerous than a pointy stick.
But then our mind evolved from a problem-solving tool and
invented conceptual systems – like nations, ideologies, races, religions, and economic
doctrines. Once we share berries around
the fire – then began defending to the death abstract symbols as if our DNA demanded
it.
The irony? Most of these mental concepts have no equivalent
in the body’s survival hardware. You can’t trip over a border in the forest.
You can’t smell a political ideology. You can’t taste an economic theory. Yet
these abstractions now routinely have us treating real humans as expendable for
imaginary lines.
Meanwhile, the 1648 international system we
inherited—the treaty of Westphalian—was designed to keep kings from invading
each other every other Tuesday. It was
never built to handle nuclear weapons, planet-wide ecological crises, global
markets, pandemics, or digital superpowers.
Yet governments still treat sovereignty as sacred,
even if it gets in the way of protecting the one thing that actually is sacred:
the biological unity of our human family and the vital ecosystems we depend on.
We’re essentially living in the real world with a political operating system
hasn’t been updated in 400 years. And
now it’s running on hardware that includes climate collapse, AI, and enough
firepower to cook the planet in an afternoon. No wonder it keeps crashing.
This mismatch—socialized DNA, medieval political
software, modern weapons—is the central threat to our species. Our emotional
circuitry evolved to stop the neighbor from stealing our mammoth steak, not to
manage hypersonic missiles, cyberwarfare, and gene-editing tools. And when
abstractions like nationalism or ideology override the older social/biological imperatives
like cooperation, coordination, fairness, empathy, reciprocity—we become the
first animal capable of engineering its own extinction. Not a prize we wanted
to win.
Which is why, surprisingly, artificial intelligence
might become the first “lifeform” capable of seeing the whole picture. It has
no tribal instinct to protect a flag. No evolutionary impulse to fear people
who look different. No hardwired us-versus-them reflex. If we guide AI values
wisely, it might even help us design institutions that actually align with
human survival rather than end our legacy.
We need systems that hold political, economic, or religious
leaders accountable when they violate human rights or destroy the biosphere. And keep reinforcing the biological Truth we
keep forgetting: we are one interdependent species on one fragile planet, far,
far away from any other habitable planet.
And if nothing else, perhaps AI will keep us around for
entertainment—like the world’s most unpredictable reality show.
Ideally, humankind would prefer to be renewed for
another season because of our wisdom, not for our AI entertainment.
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- Semiosis: The fundamental process of creating and interpreting signs, where something stands for something else (e.g., a red light means 'stop').
- Biosemiotics: Studies how living systems (cells, organisms, ecosystems) use signs and codes, suggesting meaning-making is essential to life, not just a human trait.
- Social Semiotics: Focuses on how signs and symbols create meaning within human societies, cultures, and interactions (language, art, rituals).
- Biosocial: Challenges the traditional separation of "biology" and "society," viewing them as deeply intertwined.
- Life as Sign-Based: All living things, from bacteria to humans, are engaged in semiosis, interpreting their environment and communicating.
- Beyond Reductionism: It counters the idea that meaning only appears in complex brains, finding it at the molecular level (like the genetic code) and extending up through social interactions.
- Unity of Life & Meaning: Life and meaning-making (semiosis) are coextensive; one cannot exist without the other.
- Interdisciplinary Bridge: Connects biology, philosophy, anthropology, and communication studies to understand consciousness, self, and nature.
