IS THE MIND AN ‘EMERGENT’ PROPERTY OF MATTER ?

William James (1842 – 1910), the father of American Psychology observed that Consciousness is not a ‘thing’ but a ‘process’. In the last century the western study of neurobiology, its chemical processes and imaging techniques have undergone phenomenal advances carrying this ‘study of processes’ to cognitive sciences. The brain was studied using sophisticated EEG (Electro Encelograph) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines to map the visual cortex, language areas, auditory lobes, the relation of fear to amygdala and so on and so forth [2]. But where exactly does the Consciousness reside in the cerebellum ? …. in the hippocampus or cerebrum – there are no easy answers !

So we come to what David J. Chalmers calls the ‘HARD PROBLEM’ [3] …. “ The Hard Problem is the question of how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience. This puzzle involves the inner aspect of thought and perception : the way things feel for the subject. When we see, for example, we experience visual sensations, such as that of vivid blue. Or think of the ineffable sound of a distant oboe, the agony of intense pain, the sparkle of happiness or the meditative quality of a moment lost in thought. All are part of what I call consciousness. It is these phenomena that pose the real mystery of the mind.”In a serious attempt to address this ‘Hard Problem’ His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been holding a series of Mind & Life talks with eminent western scientists every two years since October 1987 [4]. The challenge has been to trace the advent of consciousness into the human mind from the progression of matter and its evolution. Some of the interesting features of these and other related writings are as follows:-

1. The Water Molecule      The first remarkable substance is ‘Water’. It is made up one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms which bond in a ‘covalent’ manner to give the water molecule an internal ‘mickey mouse’ symmetry.[5] The 104.5 ° angle is not sacrosanct and varies as external electrostatic forces apply. This geometry also gives an electric dipole moment to the water molecule that accounts for water’s remarkable ability to dissolve a large variety of substances whose molecules are electrically bounded together. This is an ‘ionic’ bond and is external. It is the combination of this dual bonding capability that positions water as the unique ‘life – force’ on our planet. For example it co-exists as water-vapor, liquid and ice simultaneously at earth temperatures and is also the densest at 4 °C. Thus, whereas all other solids are heavier than their liquid states , ‘ice’ floats on water. It is this property that has preserved life through the ‘ice-ages’ where even though the surface of the oceans were frozen the bottom was always warm enough to support continuity.

2. The Carbon Ring of Benzene     The second amazing fact is the structure of the carbon atom. It has an interesting symmetry of ‘four’ valence electrons. It is this that allows carbon to crystallize in tight, tetrahedral structures of diamond. Carbon can bond in a ‘linear’ fashion to create long chains of organic compounds or it can also form ‘circular’ closed benzene-like structures with the symmetry of six atoms.In this manner carbon combined with an abundant supply of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur gives rise to long chains of organic chemicals which in turn are the very basis of the life-giving complex chemicals.[6]
   3 Billion Years ago the earth’s condition was that of extreme temperature and pressure and molten lava was hissing in the steam of water pools amidst lightening strikes. The conditions were perfect for all these unique properties of water and carbon to combine with other elements into a chemical soup from which emerged life sustaining chemical structures like amino acids, proteins, enzymes and other carbon compounds.[7] An interesting point in the study of the Benzene ring is that each carbon atom has three bonds with its two neighbours in the circle – the fourth extends radially outwards and is available for bonding with other atoms e.g. hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen or another carbon etc.The diagram[8] on the side shows two of these bonds with each neighbour and these are like six children holding hands in a circular game. These bonds are spatially restricted and are called ‘s – bonds’ (sigma – bonds). The third bond is vertical to this plane (going in & out of the paper) and is called the ‘p – bond’ (pi – bond). The six ‘p – bonds’ merge into each other and they are not spatially restricted over the entire circular region.Thus the ‘s – bonds’ are the backbone of the chemical structure and unfold the spatial dimension of the nucleic acids, proteins etc. On the other hand, the ‘p – bonds’ merge together in delocalized geometries and they can be said to have an extra degree of freedom. Remember that the shapes shown of these ‘bonds’ are probability distributions of occurrence of electrons in two phases or ‘spins’.

3. The Protocell – Lipid Vesicles The next crucial step in pre-biotic evolution, 3 Billion years back, seems to be the formation of the simple cell. This combines the first two facts of both water and carbon cited above. An interesting description of this has been given by Fritjof Capra[9]:-

‘It is the closure of a primitive membrane into a “vesicle” that represents a discrete transition from non-life to life.’ (Harold Morowitz)