nervous systems and consciousness

Dear Morris, Allan and All

First of all, greetings to Morris (hope you will enjoy your sci. stay in
Spain, and of course these fis discussions too).

I find curious the coincidence of both Allan and Morris, with their
comments about variational principles. Previously, perhaps some very brief
points on the origins of nervous systems will be interesting for Morris.
Here they are:

- there is good evidence that neurons were one of the earliest
differentiated cellular types,

- their initial role seems to have been OSMOTIC integration of the whole
multicellular assembly, once filtration feeding (like in sponges) was
abandoned, and circulatory systems had not been invented yet. Electrical
discharges and Ka and Na channels were, presumably, the basic tools;

- the next functional step assumed by neurons could have been
"developmental coordination" in the ontogeny of the multicell assemble.
Neurosecretion, growth factors, and some of the hormonal neuroapparatus
were invented then.

- Finally, motion and sensibility were incorporated. Fine-tunable
(chemical) synapses were invented. And an overall variational principle
could gradually emerge --yes, covering sort of a fractal multilevel
organization, as Morris says-- in order to orient the "Maths" of these new
info-processing tasks.

In the light of Allan's comments about "energetically driven dynamics", I
would like to point out that VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLES are rather classic
stuff. Santiago Ramsn y Cajal already produced one. Sigmund Freud also
elaborated on an overall energy minimization principle. And (in the 70's)
Horace Barlow too, rather extensively... They all were saying things pretty
similar to Allan's. Interested parties may have a glance on my FIS 96
presentation in Vienna --topological inventions of life. KENNETH PAUL
COLLINS and myself have published a book, appeared in Spanish ("El cerebro
dual"), that is centered in the exploration of one of these variational
principles...

Anyhow, in spite of the above comments, I cannot help but feeling that the
neuroscience discussion could not be the only --or the best-- way to
approach consciousness. Do we need a more global, "transdisciplinary"
discourse? I mean, instead of scientific "prose", perhaps we should attempt
scientific "poetry"... or both.

cordial regards

Pedro

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Pedro C. Marijuan. FAX 34 976 761861 and / 762111. TEL / 761927
Dept. Ingenieria Electronica y Comunicaciones
CPS, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza 50015, SPAIN
email: marijuan@posta.unizar.es
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Received on Fri May 15 11:42:39 1998