@mattsheffield@mastodon.social
2026-10-21 22:43 UTC
The authors reference various observations that brain cells have functions beyond biological computation, & I think this is relevant.
The autopoiesis argument is the soundest of these, but it's barely referenced.
But none of the observed behaviors of biological neurons have been established as necessary for recursive selfhood (a better word than consciousness).
What's more important is that cellular computation is necessarily based upon alteration of the substrate. Digital computation isn't.
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@mattsheffield@mastodon.social 2026-10-21 22:44
Biological computation is states of being, not the discrete actions that digital computation is. The computational instantiation of cellular collectives would still be fundamentally different from electronic neural networks even if the observed behaviors of biological neurons could somehow be duplicated. I call the cognition biological entities build "somatic deixis." Here's a longer explanation of it: https://flux.community/matthew-sheffield/2026/01/its-like-this-why-perceptions-are-our-realities/