The cell membrane as the ‘missing link’ for the evolution of consciousness

The cell membrane as the ‘missing link’ for the evolution of consciousness

Prof. John Torday, MSC, PhD 

While Prof. Torday agrees with Federico Faggin that quantum mechanics is salient to consciousness, he maintains that the role of the cell membrane—which separates an organism from its environment—is key to the selective assimilation or mirroring of the quantum properties of the cosmos into the differentiated consciousness of the organism. This essay is short, dense, and may be difficult to unpack. But it handsomely rewards the effort of the patient and determined reader. The many literature citations in the essay also provide rich ground for further exploration.

In the process of assimilating factors in the environment Symbiogenically, we have passively acquired the mathematics inherent in the Cosmos (Plato,  2007. The Republic. Penguin, New York; Livio, M. The Golden Ratio. Crown, New York; Tegmark, M.,  2015. Our Mathematical Universe. Vintage, New York). It is this convergence of physiology and mathematics that Weibel et al. referred to as Symmorphosis, or the ‘Goldilocks Effect,’ referring to how and why our ‘being’ fits with the “fine-tuning of the Cosmos.” The latter is conventionally referred to as the “Anthropic Principle,” that we just happened to land in an environment ‘just right’ for our physiology. Conversely, the autopoietic internal selection for physiologic traits due to ‘tinkering’ (Jacob F. Evolution and tinkering. Science. 1977 Jun 10;196(4295):1161-6) is consistent with the structural and functional changes that vertebrates have undergone over the course of their evolution. The feasibility of autopoiesis came to light when differentiated lung or bone cells were exposed to microgravity, only to discover that they lost their phenotypic identities in a step-wise fashion (Torday JS. Parathyroid hormone-related protein is a gravisensor in lung and bone cell biology. Adv Space Res. 2003;32(8):1569-76) consistent with the step-wise adaptation to land evidenced by the fossil record, having occurred on at least five separate occasions (Clack, 2012. Gaining Ground. University of Indiana Press, Bloomington). This was a paradigm-shifting observation because it merged physics with physiology evolutionarily, inferring that the force of gravity was necessary for the latter.

That paper reminds me of a science fiction story I once read in which some scientists discovered a radio message coming from space. Many scientists studied this signal, and some of them were found with scrambled brains. The brightest scientists were killed outright. It was possibly a way to wipe out intelligent species in the galaxy.............

I think if I read and understood that, my mind would also go into a permanent spin!

David