Mind from Matter: The Chemical Connection

One of life's most extraordinary features is its mental dimension, one whose origin and essence remain a deep scientific mystery. Given the modern scientific view that life emerged from non-life, how was ‘dead’ matter able to take on mental capabilities? In this Review we report on two recent scientific discoveries, which together offer new insights into the possible physical basis of mind and the origin of ‘self’. First, recent thinking in microbiology now contends that simplest life manifests highly developed cognitive capabilities, suggesting that such capabilities were initiated early in the evolutionary process, likely within chemistry. Second, the recent discovery of a new dimension within chemical space of energized dynamic kinetically stable (DKS) chemical systems appears able to explain the emergence of systems with distinct non-physical characteristics, including cognition and ‘self’. These two developments, when coupled to a physically based description of the evolutionary process, offer a feasible means of outlining the physical/chemical basis for life's mental state and a means for its emergence. A door toward resolution of the seemingly intractable ‘mind from matter’ problem may have opened up.