Competitive Coherence Generates Qualia in Bacteria and Other Living Systems

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Subjective experiences, sensations, or feelings, alias qualia, include the experiences of seeing the colour blue, hearing the sound of middle C, smelling a rose, touching an ice cube and feeling a pain in one’s knee. The origin of these qualia and their relationship with the material world have long been subject to intense debate. Here, I propose that qualia arise from—and can even determine—the operation of competitive coherence. The idea behind competitive coherence is that (1) the behaviour of a system depends on the activity of only a subset of the elements of the system and (2) the selection of elements belonging to this subset depends on both the history and the present state of the system (which includes its present environment). In arguing that competitive coherence is characteristic of living systems at every level, I contend that it is to bacteria that we should turn if we are to understand qualia. This is because bacteria were here first, constitute much of the biomass, are very complex, made the world as we know it, and help control its denizens. Finally, I propose that qualia are important in the functioning of high-level systems such as ecosystems. ABSTRACT: The relevance of bacteria to subjective experiences or qualia is underappreciated. Here, I make four proposals. Firstly, living systems traverse sequences of active states that determine their behaviour; these states result from competitive coherence, which depends on connectivity-based competition between a Next process and a Now process, whereby elements in the active state at time n+1 are chosen between the elements in the active state at time n and those elements in the developing n+1 state. Secondly, bacteria should help us link the mental to the physical world given that bacteria were here first, are highly complex, influence animal behaviour and dominate the Earth. Thirdly, the operation of competitive coherence to generate active states in bacteria, brains and other living systems is inseparable from qualia. Fourthly, these qualia become particularly important to the generation of active states in the highest levels of living systems, namely, the ecosystem and planetary levels.