In the present article, we argue that consciousness and body are not to be separate to explain the intentional consciousness of the human being facing to environment. 1) The most neurobiologist and neurocognitivist studies suggest that the emerging consciousness appears to be a generic recurring process which subsumes under it the various results of scientist approaches. When analyzed with the cybernetic transductive method of Simondon, this process can be viewed as a noetico-neuronal unit which the sui generis activity can be boiled down to concept of intentional consciousness. 2) Homeostasis can be also metaphorically described as a generic recurring process which subsumes under it the myriad molecular feedback loops of organism. This self-regulating dynamic process could be governed by the cosmologic (Earth + Universe) production of entropy, which would keep high activity and dissipating energy and low internal entropy to maintain an ordering in the organic structure. 3) Based on numerous arguments and data, the cerebral noetico-neuronal process and the self-regulating homeostasic process may be viewed as an entire physiological (brain + body) system. We suggest that the whole (brain + body) has an intentional embodied consciousness that could be driven by the cosmologic production of entropy.
Many current data suggest that consciousness and body are necessary sets to the self identity and the homeostasic unit of the human being [
In the third-person perspective of objective consciousness, the majority of models of consciousness were elaborate with neurobiological, neurophysical and cognitive approaches. Philosophers and scientists who deal with the objective consciousness contents belong to two main streams of thought: dualism and monism [
From the second half of the 20th, a growing number of research suggested that body and consciousness could be modeled along the lines of nonlinear complex dynamical systems implying a noetico-bodily intricacy in the conscious cognition. The entirely of the Phenomenology of Perception of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, for example, was devoted to illustrating that the body cannot be viewed solely as an object or material entity of the world [
More recently, cognitive science has insisted that consciousness is embodied, embedded, enacted, and that what now we call “the mind” does not cut off from our corporeal existence in the world and our interactions with it. As explained by Antonio Damasio, for example, brain makes charts of entries and reentries of signals that will tell it what’s going on in the body and outside. If we observe indeed a piece of the cerebral cortex, one sees sets of lines constantly fluctuating. They result from the activity of neural networks at a given moment. Some networks draw the structure of the body, for example the level of looseness of muscles, others transmit sensory images. The mental images formed by these charts are then analyzed and used. However, it is not at the level of the cortex that the analysis of these images begins, but below, in the region of the brain called brainstem. This is the first step in a process that operates from the bottom up to the cortex [
Studying visual system was mainly addressed by Viktor Lamme, Semir Zeki, David Milner and Melvyn Goodale. In his “Local recurrence theory”, Lamme proposed that there is a main access path to consciousness. Initially, information from the retina and geniculate body is sent to the ridged visual area V1. It is then sent to extra-ridged areas as well as to parietal and temporal cortex. This process is not accompanied by a conscious experience. Information is then returned to the visual cortex V1 and produces the visual experience. The model also includes a process of recurring causation that extends towards the brain areas of action, language and attention. According to Zeki, there is multiple micro-consciousness of visual origin. In his model, visual areas specialized for color (V1, V2, V4), shape (V1, V2, V3, V4) and movement (V1, V2, V3, V5) interact between them to provide an unified image which is the essential prerequisite for consciousness of a visual environment. In addition, entrant and reentrant neural activities provide a network of recurring information that contribute to the consciousness of environmental visual scene. As for Milner and goodale, visual perception involves two paths interconnected on a recurring basis: a ventral path and a dorsal path. After receiving information from retina and geniculate body, the ventral path projects towards the lower part of the temporal cortex and leads to a perceptual representation of object, while the dorsal path projects towards the parietal posterior cortex and leads to the representation of movement of the object.
The electrophysiological studies of the olfactory system were mainly tackled by Walter Freeman. Although his investigations were conducted on the olfactory system in rabbit, Freeman affirmed that his results could be more general to explain the phenomenon of consciousness. He showed that some oscillations of brain waves have no simple frequencies: instead, they present erratic and unpredictable forms. When stimuli reach the cortical olfactory system, it occurs some spatial “patterns” of modulated amplitude whose emergence is the first step in the process of perception. These “patterns” go back then at the cortex by increasing amplitude modulation while alleviating sensory activity. In this recurring process, the cortex “sees” literally the resultant meanings, not the image of stimulated “patterns” which are not conscious. Stimuli following confirm or invalidate this first perceptive operation through new “patterns” of amplitude modulation, and so on. In this model, therefore, it is suggested that the chaotic activity of multiple recurring loops of “patterns” stimulates all the cerebral hemisphere to make a perceptual awareness.
Neurobiologists Antonio Damasio, Rodolf Llinas, Jean-Pierre Changeux and Gerald Edelman proposed, in different models, that consciousness arises of the activity of a global neuronal workspace formed by some thalamo-cortical circuits. Such a workspace had been previously suggested by Bernard J. Baar [
The model developed by Damasio was mainly based on the genesis of emotion, feeling and memory. According to him, there is gradual emergence of two kinds of consciousness: the core consciousness and the extended consciousness. His model distinguishes the unconscious proto-self, the central-self of the core consciousness and the autobiographical-self of the extended consciousness. The proto-self is a coherent collection of neuronal configurations which, moment after moment, mapping the state of the physical structure of the body in its diverse dimensions: internal environment, viscera, vestibular system, musculo-skeletal framework, etc. This neuronal collection is owned by the brainstem, the hypothalamus, the basal telencephalon, and the amygdale. These neuronal configurations are implicit and unavailable to consciousness: there are potential configurations of activities. When these neuronal collections are activated by any stimulating emotional inductor, a number of consequences trigger what Damasio called “emotion”. In the first step, interaction with the emotional inductor changes the mapping of neuronal configurations of the proto-self, thus creating the sens of self in the knowing act. In the second step, stimulating induction is mapped in sensory and motor structures of the proto-self. These two types of neural charts are known as charts of first order. A chart is a sheet of neurons whose points are systematically related, on the one hand, at points on sheets of receiving neurons to satisfy entries of signals and, on the other hand, at points located on other charts to satisfy reentries of signals. A second process is then added to the first: 1) The sensorimotor maps cause changes in the mapping of configurations of the body; 2) These changes are jointly re-represented in transitional second-order charts. Finally, the second-order charts can become mental images called “feelings” through recurring causality loops: they correspond to emergence of the core consciousness of central-self. The brain regions of second-order charts appear to be the superior colliculi of “ondulating” structures in the posterior part of the midbrain (also named “tectum”), the cingulate cortices, the thalamus, and some areas of the prefrontal cortex. At a higher level, we find the expanded consciousness of the autobiographical-self, which is based on organized archiving stored experiences of the central-self. These permanent files, successively formed by the conventional memorization and by the extensive memorization of intellectual and cultural data, can be in turn transformed into explicit images of actualities, events and data (stored in the autobiographical-self) through recurrent causality loops. At still higher level, these processes result in human language, creativity and moral consciousness.
Llinas was one of the first neuro-scientists to suggest that consciousness arises of the iterative recurrent thalamo-cortical activity. In his theory, consciousness is the result of Gamma wave oscillations of recurrent circuits which include the pyramidal layer IV of the cortex, the intralaminar non-specific cores of the cortex, and the non-specific thalamic cores. In the same vein, Jean-Pierre Changeux and Stanislas Dehaene proposed that consciousness arises of a global thalamo-cortical workspace. According to these authors, this space is made up of neurons having long axons, able to disseminate information in areas that connect the thalamic nuclei of palliothalamus with the prefrontal areas, mainly the parieto-temporal and cingulate regions. Access to consciousness results from the sudden ignition of neurons having long axons, particularly dense in the prefrontal and parietal cortex. Recent experiments revealed that consciousness emergence corresponds to late synchrony of these neurons in the Beta band (13 - 30 Hz), resulting in establishment of a permanent dialog between the thalamic and cortical regions. Access to consciousness so is a global, sudden and synchronous phenomenon, which implies reciprocal causation between the concerned regions through a considerable amount of cyclically recurring paths. It is based on the three major distinctions introduced by Kant in the “Critique of pure reason”, about the nature and constitution of the “world” understood as the sum-total of all appearances: 1) development of representations from objects in the world; 2) abstraction of these representations into concepts; 3) organization of these abstractions into higher order concepts. In this model, therefore, one goes from the memorized image to concept and thought, the concept being the formalized image of the object (the prototype of the object), and the thought being a “calculation” on mental object.
In the model of Edelman, consciousness results of dynamic activities of neuronal charts in many different areas often very remote in the thalamo-cortical circuits. Consciousness emerges from a dynamic system of neuronal groups which, at some points, are synchronized and interact between them. The theory of Edelman is based on the neuronal darwinism: not only it involves a structural selection of neuronal circuits during the fetal period, but it also involves a functional adaptive selection in the adult life. Like the immune system (Edelman shared the 1972 Nobel Prize for his work on the antibody structure), brain recognition system reacts to external events by selecting each time groups of neurons. This selection requires the existence of interactions between neuronal charts, with permanent recursive exchanges of entries and re-entries. Edelman proposed that reentries between posterior, modality-specific cortical areas and more anterior areas related to memory and executive functions, provide a mechanism for conscious processes without a homunculus to do the recognizing for it. These long-range and massively parallel connections from one brain area to another provide the dynamic spatio-temporal coordination in neuronal groups that is necessary for integrated and adaptive conscious behavior. Reentrant activity also allows the brain area, having responses originally evoked by sensory input, to give similar responses in the absence of that input. Such a reentrant activity is a necessary process for memory. Thus, the present model helps to explain, for example, that thirty-three charts of visual perception, which are widely dispersed and functionally isolated, are capable of triggering the perceptive process that connects the edges, directions, content and movement in a coherent way to give the perceptual image of the object.
In his model, Edelman distinguished primary consciousness and secondary consciousness. Primary consciousness, named “remembered present”, can be defined as simple awareness that includes perception and emotion. It refers to being mentally aware of things in the world in the present without any sense of becoming, and is composed of mental images bound to a time around the measurable present. Secondary consciousness, or awareness of consciousness, is based on the ability of the dynamic workspace core to be able to connect the areas involved in the primary consciousness to areas that mediate the semantic activity. Responses triggered by the dynamic core leave the cortex by parallel, polysynaptic unidirectional paths to reach some unconscious areas (basal ganglia and some thalamic nuclei) and then return to cortex. In this way, the dynamic core connects the memory of “category-values” and moral codes as also the conventional memory to conceptual charts. Let us recall that the memory of “category-values”, which is stored during the human evolution, involves the bodily functions such as the heart rhythm, the sexual behavior, the endocrinal functions, the vegetative functions, etc. Since the dynamic core has the semantical ability to give sense (in human and some primates), it explicates the self, the past and the future by converting signals from the brain and the world in a “phenomenal transformation”. The “phenomenal transformation” is the experience in which the dynamic thalamo-cortical core “speaks to itself”. Unlike the animals, this ability to have mental images through recurring process allows man to be capable of setting himself free of the “remembered present”. Secondary consciousness reaches its higher level when the semantical ability allows to develop a genuine linguistic capability. In sum, the theory of Edelman states that primary and secondary consciousness are based on a dynamic holistic neuronal core made up of a multitude of paths of recurring causation. Although the holism theory usually lays down that parts of a whole are in intimate interconnection, such that they cannot exist independently of the whole, the holistic process is considered in the present paper to be a cybernetic system whose activity is governed permanently by results of this activity.
In the traditional philosophical and scientific studies of consciousness, explanation of intentionality was generally based on theories of consciousness. On the contrary, in the recent cognitive approaches, consciousness depends on intentionality: conscious access to mental contents becomes a secondary issue compared to the study of the treatment of information. That is, there is a cognitive reversal between the problem of consciousness and the problem of intentionality. This cognitive reversal was mainly introduced by Henri Atlan from 1990. In his initiating article “Project and significance in the networks of automata”, Atlan showed that within the framework of cognitive science, intentionality is a special form of causality that has the ability to achieve certain aims and to operate on some informational contents. Such a system can adapt its program when it is faced with a new field of meanings. To Atlan, the human being is thus capable of creating indefinitely the novelty. Karl Pribram also sought in the same period to renew the “mind-body” relationship within the framework of the cognitive reversal. From researchs of localization of cognitive functions in brain, Pribram distinguished three modules of consciousness. The first module, related to our voluntary actions, includes a twofold pathway: a pathway located at the level of vegetative regulation systems, which concerns the involuntary processes of retroactive controls (feedback) of intentions; and a pathway located at the cerebellum level, which uses proactive controls (feedforward) allowing to calculate and to fit in advance the prehensions and actions of objects. The second module, located at the level of the sensory-motor cortex, concerns the awareness of object. It is constituted by the projection of stimuli from the sensory and muscular surfaces towards the external environment where action takes place. In the third module, at the frontal cortex level, conscious attention results of information processing system that lets the narrative consciousness get a flexible treatment of usual behaviors. In sum, in the cognitivist approach of Pribram, consciousness becomes the property of some functional neuronal circuits to possess the power of “self-scanning”.
In this context of cognitive reversal, several researchers such as Alain Berthoz, Vilayanur Ramachandran and Andy Clark, showed that human cognition is able to define its own objective and create its own field of meanings. To Berthoz, cognitive systems build partial representations of environment by using one of four following spatial reference systems: 1) retino-tropic system, which allows to locate the objects compared to the position of eyes; 2) vestibular system of the inner ear, which allows to locate the objects compared to three axes of movements of the head; 3) postural system which locates the objects compared to vertical axe of the body; 4) some members of the body, such as hands, feet, etc. To Ramachandran, the visual system can use an algorithm calculated from the constraints observed in the living environment, and build thus a useful representation of the environmental scene by combining partial information. To Clark, adaptation of the cognitive system can be obtained by multiple feedback loops allowing a robot, for example, to recalculate the movement necessary to success of the operation. The cognitive reversal between consciousness and intentionality, therefore, leads to a richer model in which human permanently possesses a cognitive self-control and operates thus in a field open of meanings.
As seen before, most neurobiologist and neurocognitivist studies, whatever the physiological functional systems chosen, suggest all in fine that emergence of consciousness boils down essentially to a process of recurring causation. Despite the diversity of selected approaches, obtaining such a common conclusion is not surprising since each conscious experience is a whole regardless of its physiological origin―awareness of pain, for example, is the only conscious experience which invades the mind when the pain occurs. These emergentist approaches are generally presented as being a form of crypto-monism. Can we say that monistic conceiving is superior to any dualistic conceiving to allow a rational description of consciousness as unitary noetico-neuronal phenomenon? It seems that no, because it is as difficult, with the classical inducto-deductive thought, to explain the relationship that links the neuronal and noetic activities with the monistic conceiving as with the dualistic one. Monistic conceiving is here only verbal, because it assumes implicitly, as in the philosophy of Spinoza, that thought (here the consciousness) is a different attribute of body (here the neuronal material [
To throw light on the noetico-neuronal identity of consciousness, a possible strategy is to use the cybernetic method of the philosopher Gilbert Simondon [
Since the simondian transduction is a mode of unity through the ongoing transformations of a creative act that performs an ultimate point already contained in its essential being, the emerging consciousness can be essentially boiled down in the concept of intentional Fiat. In this re-investigation of objective characters of consciousness, transduction becomes the fundamental processual meaning of intentional Fiat. By its transductive simondian nature, consciousness is a process that is more-than-unity and more-than-identity: it is constitutively non identity to itself. It is an identity which knows itself and feels itself in the same movement that it evolves unceasingly. It is neither transparent to oneself in the sense of the Cartesian Cogito, or founded in the reality which it would aim (as in the philosophy of Husserl). Consciousness may be defined only by the operational process that constitutes it. Consciousness is a reserve of becoming which is in excess of itself, somehow as a system that has a potential energy to be permanently transformed. It is a process causa sui that tries to reach permanently a pre-ontic future, which resolves itself immediately in ontic present that becomes past (memory). In other terms, consciousness cannot be assimilated with the appearance of actualities that result of choices in the field of cognitive meanings, that is of the reduction of uncertainty from the infinite number of possibilities. Conceptually, consciousness is always ahead of itself because it is not the choice that is made but the choice that is anticipated. Let us specify that this permanent research of becoming is not about a simple actualization of possibilities predetermined by an ultimate future point. Becoming is not thought any more here as in the ontology of Greeks, because it is rather about an advent which is referred to nothing, as absolute as being. Research of future is a question that remains permanently “wanted”. By proposing that intentional Fiat of consciousness is a permanent quest for an unattainable future, this model is placed in the perspective of a creative act that needs to internalize oneself constantly, unable to escape ontological anthropogenic limits of the finitude of human beings. Nevertheless, in this back on itself by which it rebuilds unceasingly a world (a “mondeity”), intentional Fiat made of consciousness an eminent exercise of freedom insofar as it is a constant research for novelty in the open field of possibilities (or of cognitive meanings acquire through the cognitive reversal).
Homeostasis is usually considered as the self-regulating dynamic process that supports the survival of every living being. It results of the coexistence and complex articulations of infinity of recurring molecular activities, entangled in a hierarchy of different organization levels. Hypothesis of Mainzel about the nonlinear dynamical systems of feedback loops should therefore be a useful approach for studying this topic. A considerable amount of studies have shown that molecules involved in intra and extracellular signaling are made up, not by linear pathways as one thought it in the past, but by complex networks in which are orchestrated myriads of molecules having for most enzyme activities [
It is admitted that a homeostasic system keeps to a permanent tension between the local and global organizations, which are regulated within the limits imposed by structurally stable attractors of integration. These organizations have several types of temporality: they can be cyclical, stable, chaotic or chaotico-cyclical. Three categories of constraints at least appear to condition their dynamism [
Thermodynamics generally describes energy exchange processes of macroscopic systems. Objects as varied as liquids, magnets, superconductors, living things, and even black holes, comply with its laws. In macroscopic systems, behavior is reproductible and fluctuations (deviations from the typically observed) are small. However, as dimensions of systems decrease, fluctuations away from equilibrium begin to dominate their behavior: in a nonequilibrium small system, thermal fluctuations can lead to significant deviations from their average behavior [
ln | p [ x ( t ) ] p [ τ − t ] | = Δ Q T
where p [ x ( t ) ] and p [ τ − t ] stand for the probability distribution along the forward trajectory x(t) and the reversed one x [ τ − t ] respectively, Δ Q being the heat released into the bath over the course of x(t). By fixing the starting and ending points of our trajectory ( ( x ( 0 ) ) = i , x ( τ ) = j ) , we can average the exponential weight of the forward heat over all paths from i to j and obtain:
π ( j → i ; τ ) π ( i → j ; τ ) = 〈 e − Δ Q i → j τ T 〉 i → j
The transition matrix π ( i → j ; τ ) is the conditional probability that the macroscopic system is found to be in state j at time t = τ > 0 . This relation allows to formalize the myriad of small systems of recurring causation in terms of alive entity. Let us suppose now that probability distributions P ( i | A ) and P ( j | B ) are the probabilities that the system is successively in macrostates A and B (the transition A → B is supposed to be very small). As described by Gong and Quan [
π ( A → B ) = ∫ B d j ∫ A d i P ( i | A ) π ( i → j )
π ( B → A ) = ∫ A d j ∫ B d i P ( j | B ) π ( j → i )
The first equation gives the likelihood that the system will be observed to satisfy B after time τ . The second equation gives the likelihood that, after another interval τ , the system will be observed again to satisfy A. Taking the ratio of these two quantities:
π ( B → A ) π ( A → B ) = ∫ A d i ∫ B d j [ P ( j | B ) P ( i | A ) P ( i | A ) π ( j → i ) ] ∫ A d i ∫ B d j [ P ( i | A ) π ( i → j ) ]
π ( B → A ) π ( A → B ) = ∫ A d i ∫ B d j [ P ( j | B ) P ( i | A ) P ( i | A ) π ( j → i ) ] ∫ A d i ∫ B d j [ P ( i | A ) π ( i → j ) ] = 〈 e − ( Δ Q ) i → j T e ln P ( i | A ) P ( j | B ) 〉 A → B
We obtain:
{ ( e ln P ( i | A ) P ( j | B ) − ln π ( B → A ) π ( A → B ) ) ( e − ( Δ Q ) i → j T ) i → j } = 1
We arrive thus immediately at:
[ Δ Q T ] A → B + ln [ π ( B → A ) π ( A → B ) ] + Δ S int ≥ 0
Δ S int is the internal entropy variation when the system change from A to B. If A and B correspond to identical macrostates, then we should have π ( B → A ) = π ( A → B ) and the above relation reduces to the Second
Thermodynamic Law. In this case, the change of entropy of the bath ( Δ Q T ) and Δ S int must be greater than or equal to zero. However, since the change just described is a highly irreversible process ( ln [ π ( B → A ) π ( A → B ) ] is negative), the change Δ Q T + Δ S int should be the minimum positive entropy production.
With those results in mind, let us suppose that the alive entity has a population of n ≫ 1 at T temperature which obeys a master equation of the form:
p n ( t ) = ζ n [ p n − 1 ( t ) − p n ( t ) ] − ξ n [ p n ( t ) − p n + 1 ( t ) ]
where p n ( t ) is the probability of having a population of n at time t, and ζ > ξ > 0.
Let us introduce the behaviors in the system, i.e. activities. Whatever the exact value of n, the probability in the short period of time dt that one particular change A → B gives π ( A → B ) is ζ d t , while the probability to have π ( B → A ) is ξ d t . Thereby:
[ Δ Q T ] A → B + Δ S int ≥ ln [ ζ ξ ]
By rearranging this expression, we obtain:
ζ = ξ e [ Δ Q T ] A → B + Δ S int
Let us consider that the two different macrostates A and B have different dissipated heat Δ Q when Δ S int and ξ are fixed. If Δ Q > Δ Q ′ then clearly ζ > ζ ′ : the system that dissipates more heat has the macrostate transition faster (i.e., the more important activity). Now, it can be expected that even far from equilibrium, the Shannon entropy ( S int ≡ ln p ) remains the measure of statistical disorder in the system that it is for equilibrium system. Thus, if one consider the case of uniform starting and ending distributions, where p ( i | A ) = p I and p ( i | B ) = p I I , we can write Δ S int = ln ( p I / p I I ) . The relation ln ( p I / p I I ) thus measures how many more probability there is in B than in A in the system far from equilibrium. Therefore, when the system is very irreversible (i.e. when the transition of two macrostates is very fast), dissipated heat is important and Δ S int = ln ( p I / p I I ) is continuously maintained in a lower value during the macrostate transition. These results suggest that if the important dissipated
entropy of the bath ( Δ Q T ) is under the influence of a driving thermodynamic
process, then activity of the alive individual is high, its Δ S int is continuously maintained in lower values, and an order is kept in its structure to ensure the self-maintaining. These results are consistent with the original idea of Jeremy England which was recently tested in computer simulations. This approach show that groups of atoms in an open system, which generally tend to adopt configurations to arrive at a state of “thermodynamic equilibrium”, can behave differently when they are driven by external energy sources. In this case, they tend to start tapping those energy sources, aligning and rearranging so as to better absorb the energy and dissipate it as heat to keep their internal entropy low and adapt their ordering [
Let us show, now, that the driving process that ensures the self-maintaining of the living being may be the entropy production of the “Earth + Universe” system. In the Earth system, many processes are producing entropy. Numerous works have shown that the biotic activity of Earth generates substantial amounts of chemical free energy. The entropy gap between this generation of free energy and the energy consumption by living beings and physical engines is the free energy left in the neighbouring of the Earth to drive all activities [
To study evolution to thermodynamic equilibrium, a simple model as above should consist of two reservoirs of different initial heat contents (with equal heat capacity c and temperatures Th and Tc). These reservoirs exchange heat with each other but are isolated to the surroundings. Expressing the heat flux between the reservoirs as Jheat = dQ/dt (with a positive flux directed from Th to Tc), we obtain the two differential equations that describe the temperature evolution of heat reservoirs with time: c ⋅ d T h / d t = − J h e a t and c ⋅ d T c / d t = J h e a t . Hence, the respective entropies Sh and Sc are: d S h / d t = − J h e a t / T h , and d S c / d t = − J h e a t / T c . One obtains thus:
d S t o t / d t = d S c / d t + d S h / d t = J h e a t ( 1 / T c − 1 / T h ) = σ h e a t
so that the increase of the total energy of two reservoirs equals the total amount of entropy produced (σheat) by the heat exchange process within the system. This shows how the initial temperature gradient Th - Tc is depleted by the flux Jheat in time. The heat flux Jheat depletes the entropy of the hot reservoir and, by adding heat to the cold reservoir, the entropy is increased in this reservoir. Due to the mixing of heat contents, this increase of entropy in the cold reservoir is greater than the reduction of entropy in the hot reservoir. Hence, the overall entropy Stot increases with time.
To explain how entropy exchange across the system boundary can be maintained away from an equilibrium state of thermodynamic, we need to alter the energy balances of the model considered before to:
c ⋅ d T h / d t = J i n , h − J o u t , h − J h e a t , c ⋅ d T c / d t = J i n , c − J o u t , c + J h e a t
and
d S h / d t = J i n , h / T i n − J o u t , h / T h − J h e a t / T h + σ m i x , h
d S c / d t = J i n , c / T i n − J o u t , c / T c + J h e a t / T c + σ m i x , c
where the entropy associated with the incoming energy is associated with the temperature Tin. Entropy is produced by the mixing of the incoming energy fluxes Jin,h and Jin,c in the two reservoirs at temperatures Th and Tc. We therefore obtain:
σ m i x , h = J i n , h ( 1 / T h − 1 / T i n ) and σ m i x , c = J i n , c ( 1 / T c − 1 / T i n )
and by mixing associated with heat flux Jheat from the warm reservoir to cold reservoir:
σ h e a t = J h e a t ( 1 / T c − 1 / T h )
Finally, the entropy budget of the whole system is given by the following equation:
d S t o t / d t = d S h / d t + d S c / d t = σ m i x , h + σ m i x , c + σ h e a t − L
where L = ( J o u t , h / T h + J o u t , c / T c ) – ( J i n , h + J i n , c / T i n ) is the net entropy exchange across the system boundary. Consequently, the initial temperature gradient is depleted as previous, but it does not vanish in the steady state. Instead, a heat flux transports heat from warm to cold to deplete the temperature gradient that is continuously built by the differential heating Jin,h − Jin,c. This heat flux produces entropy by the depletion of the temperature gradient, but instead of increasing the entropy of the system to the maximum, the produced entropy in steady state is exported by the enhanced export of entropy associated with the outgoing heat flux Jout,h + Jout,c. In sum, the theory of Kleidon shows that in the Earth system, there is an unceasing maintain of entropy exchange away from the thermodynamic equilibrium state which results from the overall lower temperature at which the total amount of received heat is exported to the surroundings.
Although the current entropy content of the Universe is also a complex question, it is simpler to deal with because the boundaries of the Universe are not an issue. Most cosmologists make assumption that entropy of the Universe is increasing since the hot Big Bang 13.8 billions years ago [
Psychologists and philosophers both investigate the nature of the mind from rather different angles. Psychologists and neuro-scientifists study the actual mechanisms in brain and body which underpin mental events and processes. By contrast, philosophers ask more abstract questions: for example, about how can be designed the relationship between the noetic activity and the subjacent neuronal activity. However, psychology and philosophy are not opposed disciplines and are complementary. Although many scientists do not deny there is a difficult mind-body problem, they generally admit that individuals are physiological systems with mental and material properties, and intentionality of consciousness belongs both to brain and body [
As argued by Andrieu [
It results from the long preceding series of data and arguments that intentional Fiat of embodied consciousness could be the unitary response of the whole to increasing production of entropy of the “Earth + Universe” system, to maintain low values of the internal entropy of living beings (an order in their structures) and thus ensure their self-maintaining. Being who lives would have the intentional Fiat of embodied consciousness for ground of his entity, but such ground, not consciously, would be itself supported by the increasing production of the entropy of the “Earth + Universe” system. It is this continuous activity that should characterize the being who lives, pulled towards the unattainable future by a fatal increasing entropy of cosmological order. This activity of the being should maintain both his intentional embodied consciousness and his individual entity. To do this, the being should absorb the energy and dissipates it as heat to keep his entropy low and an order in his structure by increasing the entropy of its surroundings. The production of entropy of the pole object would be thus causally determinative for the production of entropy of the pole subject and causally determined by this last: pole object and pole subject would be linked by a circular causation.
We show here that: 1) the emerging consciousness appears to be a generic recurring process which subsumes the various results of scientist approaches under it; 2) homeostasis can be also metaphorically described as a generic recurring process which subsumes the myriad molecular feedback loops of organism under it. Based on a very large number of data and arguments, these noetico-neuronal and self-regulating homeostasic processes may be viewed as forming a fully unitary physiological system (brain + body) that is continuously driven by the fatal increasing cosmological entropy. It is proposed that this increasing entropy keeps internal entropy low and an order in the organism to allow the unceasing activity of the individual. It is this activity, pulled towards an unattainable future, that would maintain both intentional embodied consciousness and individual entity of the being that lives.
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
Blanquet, P.R. (2018) Towards a Possible Entropy-Driven Process of Consciousness. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 8, 674-696. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbbs.2018.812041