Greater Intelligence: A Spiritual Idea Backed by Science?
Your brain is not as smart as you think…there's something else that's a lot smarter.
Intelligence is beyond the brain
One of the most interesting things I’ve watched recently is Dr. Michael Levin’s videos about how everything from the most complex beings like humans to the smallest building blocks of matter are “intelligent.”
Dr. Levin is a professor at Tufts University who researches how embodied minds come about and function in this world. I highly recommend his Youtube channel if this tickles your curiosity.
Intelligence is not limited to our brains but is a fundamental aspect of all matter, living or passive.
The implications of this are mind-boggling!
In this post, we talk about our role in this universe and how relying on our brains may not be the smartest strategy.
But first, let’s align on what we mean by intelligence.
“Intelligence is the ability to reach the same goal by different means.”
- William James
This definition is also what Dr. Michael Levin goes by.
Passive matter is intelligent
What is fascinating is that everything around us even at the atomic level has goals and meets those goals even when placed under constraints.
It’s not a “follow the script” as encoded in your DNA way…but rather in a way where it tries new things to meet the goal. It learns and adapts.
Equilibrium is a great example of this.
When you spray perfume in a room, molecules spread until they’re evenly distributed. The system as a whole “solves” the change introduced and reaches equilibrium.
The same thing happens with heat.
Passive matter such as atoms are able to collectively stabilize without needing some sort of central direction (e.g. brain or neurons).
Organisms without a brain are intelligent
A single-cell organism known as Lacrymaria can meet its “goals” of finding food and navigating its space without any nervous system1. How does it know to do that? Where is this direction coming from? It doesn’t have a “brain” or “neurons.”
Collective intelligence is even more fascinating
In biological tissue reengineering, cells are often left on their own to “figure out” the rebuilding without much micro-management.
Why?
Cells have end goals and collectively know what to do …and when to stop.
Not only do cells have goals of regulating and surviving individually…but when you put cells together, the collective group becomes intelligent!
The flatworm Planaria is able to regenerate new worms from any part of the body. If you cut the planaria into pieces (the record is ~275 pieces)...each piece regrows to the exact whole even if that piece didn’t have the brain2.
How does an individual cell know what the whole flatworm looks like?
Collectively, how does the cut piece and all the cells in it know to recreate the whole worm and STOP when done?
It doesn’t accidentally grow two heads or keep growing. It’s precise, has memory, and is intelligent.
And no matter what the constraints (even the 275 cuts!)…it strives to meet its end goals and stop once done.
That is absolutely mind boggling!
Why this matters
As I write about this, I get goosebumps. Science is now coming across concepts that spiritual seekers have experienced and shared since thousands of years.
Here’s how knowing that intelligence is in everything (not necessarily just in our brains) can help us live more joyful, peaceful, and radically interesting lives.
Everything from the bottom up seems to have goals. Humans have goals too (whether we know or not). Perhaps the source of these goals is deeper than our conscious thought. Ever wonder why you have the desire to do something?
This intelligence that guides all matter to their end goals is accessible to us too. After all, we are very much a responsive part of this fascinating interconnected web that is the universe.
That guidance is our intuition…transcending our brains and rational thought.
In a big way, I think this gives us a way out of psychological suffering.
When we know that our goals and the path to the goals doesn’t fall on our limited brains, it reduces the pressure to control the future and allows us to engage in the present moment.
This means that whatever we truly desire is possible, perhaps inevitable. We are part of this greater intelligence and as long as we follow our intuitive nudges, we are guided to this end state.
After all, intelligence is the ability to meet the end goal using different means.
And if the goal is inevitable, life is about the journey and experiencing this incredible interconnectedness with the illusion of the self.
And coming to why these goals?
That’s another mind-boggling mysterious question to be explored another time.
https://www.templeton.org/news/intelligence-without-a-brain
Amazing! such complexity distilled so beautifully. Thanks for sharing.
Amazing!!