The Sentient Cell

The Cellular Foundations of Consciousness

William Miller author Frantisek Baluska author Arthur S Reber author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:5th Oct '23

Should be back in stock very soon

The Sentient Cell cover

All species, extant and extinct, from the simplest unicellular prokaryotes to humans, have an existential consciousness. Without sentience, the first cells that emerged some 4 billion years ago would have been evolutionary dead-ends, unable to survive in the chaotic, dangerous environment in which life first appeared and evolved. In this book, Arthur Reber's theory, the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC), is outlined and distinguished from those models that argue that minds could be instantiated on artificial entities and those that maintain consciousness requires a nervous system. The CBC framework takes a novel approach to classic topics such as the origin-of-life, philosophy of mind, the role of genes, the impact of cognition, and how biological information is processed by all species. It also calls for a rethinking of a variety of issues including the moral implications of the sentient capacities of all species, how welfare concerns need to be expanded beyond where they currently are, and critically, how all life is intertwined in a coordinated cognitive ecology. The Sentient Cell explores this revolutionary model, which updates the standard neo-Darwinian framework within which current approaches operate and examines the underlying biomolecular features that are the likely candidates for the "invention" of consciousness and outline their role in cellular life.

The Sentient Cell comes at a timely moment,... It is increasingly obvious that the climate crisis is indistinguishable from the biodiversity crisis, and science calls repeatedly for "transformational change."...The Sentient Cell therefore presents an essential intellectual framework that reconnects us to the best of the Western scientific tradition. It provides an intellectual pathway to reorganize our relationship with our life-support system. This is an essential transformational book for present and future generations, and for real and meaningful cross-cultural reconciliation. * Loys Maingon, British Columbia Review *

ISBN: 9780198873211

Dimensions: 240mm x 163mm x 19mm

Weight: 590g

288 pages