António Damásio: Neuroscience, Medicine and a New Society
Summary
TLDRThe speaker at the event celebrates the achievements of the Animal Foundation and its supporters over the past decade, highlighting advancements in science and medicine. They predict a convergence of life and social sciences into a new field called 'human sciences,' emphasizing the importance of understanding human beings within the broader biological context. The speaker also discusses the evolution of consciousness and its impact on homeostasis, the role of culture in managing life regulation, and the potential for future neurobiological research to clarify the dual nature of consciousness. They touch on the significance of microbiota and the enteric nervous system in health, and the emerging field of human-engineered device interfaces, such as brain-activated prosthetics. The talk concludes with a cautionary note on the potential for societal disruption due to various global challenges, urging a proactive approach to prevent such catastrophes.
Takeaways
- 🎉 **Celebration of Achievement**: The speaker acknowledges the accomplishments of the Animal Foundation in science, medicine, and their optimistic spirit over the past decade.
- 🧠 **Convergence of Sciences**: Predicts a merging of life sciences and social sciences into a new field called 'human sciences', focusing on the biological continuum of human characteristics.
- 🌐 **Human Exceptionalism Shift**: Suggests a move away from viewing humans as exceptional towards recognizing our place in the biological spectrum.
- 🧬 **Sentience and Evolution**: Highlights the evolution of life regulation, including the emergence of sentience and feeling, which are critical for consciousness.
- 🌿 **Continuity in Evolution**: Emphasizes the importance of understanding the continuity of life and the interconnectedness of all species.
- 🧬 **Dual Control of Homeostasis**: Discusses the dual control of homeostasis, both automatic and willful, and its implications for freedom and potential conflicts.
- 💡 **Cultural Instruments**: Describes cultural instruments such as arts, belief systems, and governance as extensions of biological homeostasis to manage socio-cultural stasis.
- 🌱 **Cooperation in Biology and Culture**: Points out the significance of cooperation at various biological levels and its reflection in socio-cultural phenomena.
- 🧐 **Consciousness Debate**: Anticipates advancements in neurobiology that will help explain the dual nature of consciousness within the next decade.
- 🦠 **Microbiota's Role in Health**: Predicts the growing recognition of the gut microbiota's influence on nervous system diseases like depression and autism.
- 🤖 **Neuro-Technology Interface**: Envisions a future where brain-activated prosthetics and exoskeletons become commonplace, aiding those with physical disabilities.
- ⚖️ **Homeostasis in Medicine**: Defines medicine as a cultural extension of homeostasis, addressing the failures of natural homeostasis in disease.
- ⚠️ **Risks of Disruption**: Warns of the potential for societal and environmental disruptions, similar to historical events, and the importance of addressing inequality and other issues to prevent such catastrophes.
Q & A
What is the significance of the celebration being discussed in the transcript?
-The celebration is significant because it marks ten years of remarkable achievements by the Animal Foundation and its supporters in building, science, and medicine programs.
What is the first prediction made by the speaker regarding the future of scientific disciplines?
-The first prediction is that the life sciences and social sciences will merge to form a new field called the 'new human sciences,' reflecting an integration of biological knowledge across multiple species and their evolutionary placement.
Why is it important to move away from human exceptionalism in scientific research?
-Moving away from human exceptionalism is important because it acknowledges the continuity of biological characteristics that appear in many other species, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of our place in the biological world.
What is the role of the nervous system in the evolution of life?
-The nervous system evolved when multicellular organisms required neural assistance for efficient and well-coordinated homeostasis, eventually leading to the emergence of feeling, consciousness, and dual control over homeostasis.
How does the concept of 'cooperations' play a role in biological and socio-cultural evolution?
-Cooperations are instances where independent entities join together symbiotically to form a living cell, tissues, organs, and even social groups. This concept is crucial in understanding the emergence of complex life forms and socio-cultural structures.
What is the potential impact of the human microbiota on our health and nervous system?
-The human microbiota, consisting of about a hundred trillion microbial cells, plays an essential role in our health and may influence various diseases of the nervous system, including depression and autism, through its symbiotic relationship with our bodies.
What is the significance of the enteric nervous system in our body?
-The enteric nervous system, with about 500 million neurons, is crucial for the operation of our nervous system, particularly at the level of feelings and emotions, and may have a more significant impact than the spinal cord.
How does the development of brain-activated prosthetics and exoskeletons relate to the concept of homeostasis?
-Brain-activated prosthetics and exoskeletons represent a novel form of cooperation between human organisms and engineered devices, extending the medical and cultural efforts to maintain homeostasis in cases where natural homeostasis fails due to injury or disease.
What is the speaker's stance on the potential risks of artificial intelligence?
-The speaker acknowledges the potential risks of artificial intelligence, suggesting that while it is substantially under human control, success in managing these risks is not guaranteed and requires collective will and determination.
Why is it important to consider historical disruptions, such as the fall of the late bronze age empires, in the context of current scientific and cultural progress?
-Considering historical disruptions serves as a reminder of the potential for significant setbacks in human progress and underscores the importance of addressing current social, political, and environmental issues, such as inequality and climate change, to prevent similar catastrophes.
What is the speaker's final message regarding the future of scientific and cultural progress?
-The speaker's final message is a call to lead scientific and cultural progress in a way that makes potential catastrophes unthinkable and impossible, by addressing current challenges and fostering a deeper understanding of our interconnectedness with the natural world.
Outlines
🎉 The Celebration of Achievements and the Future of Human Sciences
The speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the invitation and subtly disagrees with a previous statement, asserting that the event is indeed a celebration. They celebrate the accomplishments of the Animal Foundation over the past decade, not just in terms of infrastructure but also in the significant advancements in science and medicine. The speaker, a human neurobiologist, intends to discuss future trends and attitudes in biology and science culture. The first prediction is that life sciences and social sciences will merge to form a new field called the 'new human sciences,' which will integrate biological knowledge across species, their evolutionary history, and their habitats. The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing the continuity of human characteristics with other species and moving away from 'human exceptionalism.'
🧠 The Emergence of Consciousness and the Role of Nervous Systems
The speaker delves into the evolution of life regulation, known as homeostasis, and how it led to the emergence of sentience and feeling, which in turn permitted the rise of consciousness. The exact timing of this emergence is unknown, but it's likely that it coincided with the development of the first nerve nets around four million years ago. The Hydra, a simple organism with a nerve net, is used as an example to illustrate this point. The speaker suggests that nervous systems and brains are tools that evolved to assist with efficient homeostasis in multicellular organisms. The development of feeling and consciousness has led to a dual control system for homeostasis, with both automatic and willful aspects. This dual control presents both benefits and risks, offering freedom from genetic constraints but also the potential for conflict and inefficiency. Cultural instruments such as existential inquiry, arts, belief systems, and governance have developed as a result of the combination of feeling states and human intellect, and these are seen as both blessings and burdens. The speaker connects this discussion to the merging of life sciences and social sciences, emphasizing the importance of understanding these developments in the context of evolutionary continuity.
🌿 Addressing Global Issues and the Origins of Consciousness
The speaker addresses the importance of considering life regulation when tackling problems in biology, cognition, socio-political phenomena, and the sustenance of planetary life. They mention a meeting in Paris about climate, emphasizing that it is fundamentally about life regulation. The speaker predicts that within the next decade, the structures of the human brain stem, insular cortex, and cerebral cortex will be identified as critical to understanding consciousness. They also discuss the extraordinary scale of cooperations in biology, such as the symbiotic relationship between bacteria and the formation of living cells, and how these cooperations extend to social levels, forming social groups and nations. The speaker highlights the importance of the human gut's microbiota and the enteric nervous system, predicting that these will be influential in understanding diseases of the nervous system, including depression and autism.
🤖 Technological Advancements and the Future of Medicine
The speaker predicts that future neurobiology will clarify the socio-cultural emergence of cooperations and the role of the microbiota in our bodies. They discuss the importance of recognizing the symbiotic relationships in our bodies, such as the cooperation with bacteria in our gut and the air we breathe, which is generated by plants. The speaker also predicts advancements in the interface between human organisms and engineered devices, particularly in the field of brain-activated prosthetics and exoskeletons. They mention ongoing research at the foundation related to these technologies. The speaker then discusses the role of medicine as a cultural extension of homeostasis, emphasizing its importance when natural homeostasis fails due to disease. They also touch on the potential risks of artificial intelligence and the importance of collective will in preventing disruptions that could lead to significant setbacks for humanity.
⚠️ The Risks of Disruption and the Importance of Inequality
The speaker concludes with a cautionary note about the potential for global disruption, drawing parallels with historical events such as the fall of the late bronze age empires. They suggest that while the threat of nuclear holocaust seems less imminent, other issues, including climate change and social and political problems, could lead to similar disruptions. The speaker highlights the problem of inequality as a significant concern and calls for scientific and cultural progress that makes such a catastrophe unthinkable and impossible. They end their speech with a note of gratitude and a call to action for the audience to consider these possibilities and to work towards a future that prevents such disruptions.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Celebration
💡Optimism
💡Human Sciences
💡Homeostasis
💡Consciousness
💡Cultural Instruments
💡Socio-Cultural Homeostasis
💡Neurobiology
💡Enteric Nervous System
💡Brain-Computer Interface
💡Inequality
Highlights
The speaker celebrates the achievements of the Ship Animal Foundation in science and medicine over the past decade.
Prediction that life sciences and social sciences will merge to form a new field called the 'new human sciences'.
Discussion on the importance of moving away from human exceptionalism towards a more integrated understanding of biological continuity.
The emergence of consciousness and its role in the evolution of life regulation, or homeostasis.
The critical role of the human brain stem and insular cortex in explaining dual aspects of consciousness.
The impact of the microbiota in our gut and its symbiotic relationship with our nervous system.
The enteric nervous system's significant contribution to feelings and emotions, potentially influencing conditions like depression and autism.
The potential for brain-activated prosthetics and exoskeletons to revolutionize health and mobility.
Medicine as a cultural extension of homeostasis, addressing the failures of natural homeostasis in disease.
The possibility of a major societal disruption due to maltreatment of the planet, climate change, and social inequality.
The need for scientific and cultural progress to prevent potential catastrophes and ensure a sustainable future.
The existence of a new journal called 'Animal Sentience', indicating a growing focus on the sentience of non-human species.
The extraordinary scale of biological cooperations, from cellular to social levels, enabling complex life forms and societies.
The importance of understanding the continuity of evolution in addressing problems in biology, cognition, and socio-political phenomena.
The potential for advancements in neurobiology to elucidate the socio-cultural impacts of human intellect and consciousness.
The role of cultural instruments like existential inquiry, arts, and moral systems in managing socio-cultural homeostasis.
The possibility that future disruptions could occur due to factors similar to those that led to the fall of the late bronze age empires.
The collective will's substantial influence over the trajectory of technological and societal progress.
Transcripts
so good afternoon thank you for inviting
me to this celebration and I must begin
by disagreeing with you note by saying
that this is in fact a celebration she
said it was not but it is and it is a
celebration of what you know and our
insuperable tell you and all the other
supporters of the ship Animal Foundation
have managed to do in ten years in terms
of not just the beautiful building but
the programs in science and in medicine
which are of course quite remarkable now
they did this because they're optimists
and they have general spirits and you
need to be very optimistic and have a
lot of generous spirit in order to come
up with the title like the hundred years
of this unknown or the unknown in a
hundred years because of course we all
know that we will not know what that
hundred year mark will be but there are
a certain number of things that we can
we can try so rather than telling you
about
particular discoveries or particular
gadgets that I might think might come up
within the next few decades
I thought of focusing on a number of
ideas trends attitudes approaches not
only in biology but in science as a
whole and in the culture as a whole that
may be better predictors of what may or
may not come to pass and I would like to
so in fact what I want to do from my
perspective as a human neurobiologist
with a great interest on what
neurobiology has created in terms of
cultures what I'm going to do is is talk
about a number of reasonable predictions
and a number of justifications for those
predictions so let's see if we can start
and here's the first prediction
the life sciences and the social
sciences will gradually merge to
consider constitute a vast endeavor it
might be called the new human sciences
and the effort will reflect an
integration of biological knowledge
related to multiple species to their
evolutionary placement and to their
physical to the physical in habitats
that they require now this is something
that I I hope you connect with because
it has to do with a change that has not
happened yet but I hope will happen soon
it has to do with the turning away from
the human exceptionalism that we have
used abundantly in science including
neuroscience people talk about human
achievements in terms of their
intelligence their use of language their
creation of culture of course no one
doubts that we are exceptional in that
sense people talk about the exceptional
abilities of our several cortex for
example but what is lost in the shuffle
when you talk that way is the fact that
we are in the continuous in a continuum
of biological characteristics there
appear in many other species and then it
is important for us not only as
researchers but also as the consumers of
the research and as the public at large
to realize that immense continuity I
think that that will come to pass I
think that what we are going to have is
something like this joining of life
sciences and social sciences and I call
it the new human sciences because the
term human sciences does not have that
much currency in the anglo-saxon world
it does have some in French culture
there is already a bit of a blend of
life of biology for example and of
traditional humanities but what will be
very exciting is to bring together all
these fields and focus them on the human
being by the way as an aside just
this month in fact I think this week
there's a new journal beginning in the
United States and in the world which is
called animal sentience that does have
something to do with what I just told
you why do I think this will come to
pass
well because life regulation which is
technically also known as homeostasis
does not occur only at the basic level
of automatically governed molecular and
cellular operations at some point in
evolution another control interface
emerged
it consisted of sentience and feeling
which permitted together the emergence
of consciousness we cannot yet date the
epoch of this momentous emergence it is
probable however that by the time that
the first nerve nets appeared in the
history of life in canarians
in the Precambrian period we're talking
about some four million years ago the
partnership of a living body with its
nervous system permitted the rise of
feeling but it's also possible that it
actually began earlier and so I brought
to you an image of one of my favorite
animals it's a Hydra and this Hydra
which is really for those of you who
have not met hydras is something like a
floating digestive system is equipped
with this beautiful nerve net that
permits some of its most important
functions such as capturing nutrients
digesting them maintaining motility
creating for example peristalsis and it
is something that at heart has this
reticular this network arrangement which
lo and behold although this creature
comes from 4 million years ago exists
very much in all of us inside our
brainstem in fact the reticular
formation of our brainstem which is a
critical element of the governance of
life in each and every one of us and it
permits for example the emergence of
feeling is in fact organized
neroli pretty much the same way
now nervous systems themselves and
eventually brains are mere instruments
of amused asses and so this idea by
itself is an idea that of course I don't
need to prove it it's there it it's
certainly a fact but it is not the
general perspective that people use when
they think for example about brain
research or about minds or about
sociality so actually nervous systems
appeared in evolution when multicellular
organisms so life already organized
could no longer cope with efficient well
coordinated homeostasis without neural
assistance so in fact one could say
something like this maybe it's a
sentence that you might want to ponder
and discuss if evolution had a mind of
its own nervous systems would be a mere
afterthought of complex living bodies
not the other way around
now once feeling in consciousness
emerged the homeostasis game changed
step by step the individual became
informed in an affected valence manner
about the state of life regulation in
its body eventually after substantial
intellectual capacities co-evolved
homeostasis acquired dual controls it
was now governed both automatically and
willfully the dual control has benefits
and costs it offers freedom from the
relative tyranny of the genome but it
carries the risk of conflicts and
inefficiency it can actually be a burden
but the important point is to realize
that we have two ways of running our
homeostasis once one that comes from a
very old history in biology and which is
not under our control
and another which gradually it's a sort
of work in progress we have under our
willful control for better and for worse
and so the combination of feeling States
with the expansion of human intellect
has led to the development of cultural
instruments for example existential
inquiry the arts belief systems moral
systems and justice governance and
economics
technology and science the cultural
instruments attempt what in fact is on
your stasis but they do it through a
socio-cultural
means and they are of course these new
instruments of honest Isis are both
blessings and burdens and so this is
where I I connect with the first image I
gave you at the beginning of the joining
of life sciences and social sciences is
that seen in this perspective what we
are doing in our cultures in all the
activities in which everyone in this
room engages so passionately is in fact
not something that we invent it out of
the blue once we had minds capable of
intellectual feats it's actually
something that is intellectual and that
requires certain capacities and
abilities but it is in the continuity of
what has been happening throughout
evolution in terms of organizing and
maintaining life so almost a season in
particular human on your stays is
broadly conceived at multiple levels
will be recognized this is another
prediction is the issue we need to
address when we approach problems in
basic biology cognition socio-political
and cultural phenomena or sustenance of
planetary life at this very moment there
is a meeting being convened in Paris
about climate and guess what it is about
climate but it is fundamentally about
the regulation of life conditions it
cannot be understood the problems that
are being discussed cannot be understood
outside of the context of life
regulation and that very much applies to
the discussion we were having before in
terms of what for example the net will
bring in the future quite interesting
and this is another prediction many of
you will know that there's plenty of
debate in science about the origins of
consciousness and about how
consciousness may or may not be
explained that neurobiological level so
I'll put my foot my best foot forward
and I will say that within the next
decade we will have the possibility of
verifying that in fact structures of the
human brain stem which is being
represented there together with
structures of the insular cortex both
relatively humble one more than the
other as well as structures of the
cerebral cortex and in particular the
structures that permit long tracked
connections that cross integrate
components of the cerebral cortex across
the entire space are going to be
critical to explain exactly this dual
aspect of consciousness on the one hand
the phenomenal feeling Ness that we have
when we are conscious on the other the
so-called easy problem of consciousness
which has to do with the fact that we
have a huge amount of information that
can be manipulated in our imagination
and some of those beautiful connections
I'm showing you there they come from
Donna's lab and these are from human
brains and they're being of course
created through or represented through
diffusion tensor imaging and tract
representation and what is so remarkable
here is that they are huge connections
that far more than in other species make
this broad links across the space of the
cerebral cortex and on we go another
prediction future neurobiology will make
clear that the emergence of
socio-cultural amia slices the way I
explained it was possible because of the
extraordinary scale of a set of
phenomena best designated as
cooperations you see we speak a lot
about cooperations in the world of the
culture and yet there are cooperations
going on at biological level at multiple
biological levels for example the key
example the cooperation of bacteria that
give up their independent lives to join
symbiotically and construct a living
cell which you see there's a little
homage to lynn margulis who was very
much a defender of this idea that the
org
that you find in the living cell were in
fact in ages past bacteria other
examples include the joining of cells to
make tissues tissues that make organs
and systems and organism and also again
jumping to the social level the
cooperations that create social groups
cities nations in a planet where in turn
each individual is cooperating
symbiotically
with millions of bacteria that
constitute the microbiota of their own
guts and where they breathe the air that
is generated by a cooperation with many
individual plants and so forth now this
is not a prediction it's a series of
facts to lead to possible predictions
there are about a hundred trillion
microbial cells in the human gut each of
us has about three pounds of them right
now if you are healthy and I hope you
all are and all of these these trillions
of microbes are living symbiotically in
our organism and are in fact essential
for our organism to function normally
Margaret
MacPhail Nye has had a rather
interesting sentence in which she said
that plants and animals are a near
patina in the microbial world now this
is of course a little bit pushed but
nonetheless it captures the idea and now
let me add something that is interesting
not many people talk about the enteric
nervous system but since I was talking
about microbiota and that has to do in
fact with one's guts I thought of
mentioning this because it's in fact not
mentioned even in the index of most
textbooks for example of neuroscience
now the enteric nervous system has about
500 million neurons and this is five
times the number of neurons that you can
find in the spinal cord and they are
doing something quite important and they
are doing something quite important that
has a role to play in the operation of
our nervous system for example at
level of feelings and emotion the
prediction here is that in fact many
diseases of the nervous system including
for example depression or a condition
such as autism are likely influenced by
not only this microbiota fact that I've
just introduced but by the fact that we
have an enteric nervous system there is
far more important in its contribution
to the operations of the nervous system
at molecular level and at cellular level
then for example the spinal cord itself
not that we do not need the spinal cord
without which you cannot have our proper
movement so another kind of cooperation
this is a prediction that is actually
rather easy to make but the proportions
that it will assume I think are quite
spectacular in the next and novel sort
of cooperation is as began and will
expand it happens at the interface
between human organisms and engineer
devices especially at the nervous system
body interface I'm talking about brain
activated prosthesis and even
exoskeletons that will become
commonplace in years to come I'm glad to
say that here at the shrimp Alamo
foundation there are investigators
working on this problem and and of
course we're not talking about the cane
or a pair of glasses we're talking about
the possibility of having your mind
willfully activate a prosthesis that
will allow you to guide your arm a
prosthetic arm to an object and will
allow me for example with the
nexto-skeleton to move after you have
become tetraplegic this is something
that does have to do with health so why
do I talk about homeostasis in a session
there is to do with medicine very simple
medicine is actually the cultural
extension of homeostasis the scientific
knowledge and the practices of medicine
are called for and kick in when natural
homeostasis fails in disease ensues as a
result of the emergence of feeling and
consciousness
two aspects that are critical in all of
this story the medical extension of
Amish days is include psychology
psychiatry and numerous socio-cultural
developments designed to cope with the
pathologies that result from a
disorganized socio-cultural homeostasis
now I would like to end with a couple of
comments that for some of you may sound
a little bit sad or troubling we've
already talked about possibilities of
trouble in the previous talk with the
developments that may come out of a
runaway system of artificial
intelligence but let me read what I
wrote here and discuss it with you
imagine that instead of think sailing
beautifully as we hope they will we
would have something like what I wrote
about I believe all this could pass
because it is substantial part under the
control of our collective wills but
success is by no means guaranteed
besides the vagaries of human collective
determination think of what seems to
have happened in the twelfth century
before the Christian era about 1200 BC
during the so-called great disruption I
want you to be a little bit more remote
so that we would not have to worry about
today immediately but today worry
instead about something that is very
real this is the period of the fall of
the late bronze age empires in the
eastern Mediterranean a period and a
collection of events that formed the
background for Homer's Iliad think of
the fall of Egypt Crete and - Troy and
Babylon now whether as a result of
earthquakes or droughts or the violent
actions of the so-called sea people or
perhaps all of the above combined the
best of dreams of these cultures came to
an abrupt and abrupt halt it took
centuries to rebuild what was lost then
I guess the the nice side of this story
is that in fact what came after those
centuries of rebuilding were
the first monotheistic religions but
still it was a major disruption so this
sort of disruption was obviously
possible in the 20th century when a
nuclear holocaust was a real possibility
it appears like it is a bit less so but
then the worry waned I think we would do
well to consider the possibility that
such a disruption could occur from
different reasons or perhaps even from
reasons that are very similar and have
to do with the maltreatment of the
planet climate in many other social and
political problems including one problem
that I was glad was brought up in the
discussion by Tim and that is the
problem of inequality and I think we
would do well to consider this
possibility and the lead the scientific
and cultural progress in a way that
makes such a catastrophe thinkable but
impossible thank you very much
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