Consciousness & Reality (C&R) Colloquium: WHAT IS A FEELING? A BIOENERGETIC PERSPECTIVE
Consciousness & Reality (C&R) Colloquium 2024-25 Series: Inaugural Lecture
WHAT IS A FEELING? A BIOENERGETIC PERSPECTIVE
Wednesday, November 13th, 10 a.m. Pacific Time
Online-only event. Zoom link:
https://zoom.us/j/99505485799?pwd=fYOUh2gCTEuDgP8JlEq3ey2dvTr9Ip.1
NICK LANE
Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry
Centre for Life's Origins and Evolution, University College London
As an evolutionary biologist, I am a realist: I see feelings as physical processes that reflect, albeit ambiguously, how an organism is doing in relation to its environment. Feelings such as pain have little information content and do not obviously relate to information processing in neural networks. Recent work on anaesthetics suggests they dissipate electron spin polarization generated by chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) in respiration. I will argue that local electromagnetic fields from mitochondria produce a physical state corresponding to feelings. Mitochondria derive from free-living bacteria, and I will outline why electromagnetic fields could have utility in bacterial cells.
ABOUT THE EVENT
This lecture will be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience. Caltech, Stanford, MIT, IMICS, Berkeley and University of Arizona members from all divisions are welcome to join. Select questions from the Q&A window will be answered after the lecture.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Consciousness & Reality colloquium series promotes interdisciplinary investigations on mind, cognition, consciousness, and the nature of reality.