The Cut Chapter | Life is More than Mechanism
The cut chapter from 'What Lies Beyond: Consciousness, Science, the Paranormal and the Post-Material future' by Matt Colborn
Introductory Note
This is the chapter that ‘never made it’ to the final submission version of What Lies Beyond. It’s about the nature of life. It was cut because the main focus of the book became paranormal and mystical experience, and I felt that the chapter was too much of a diversion from this focus. The chapter was intended to be a response to the claim made in Anil Seth’s 2017 TED talk that just as we now understand life in mechanistic terms, so we will eventually understand consciousness. In his book, Being You, he further claims that understanding life and understanding consciousness are linked. I agree with this idea, but I think that both life and consciousness are far more than mechanism. This chapter extends the arguments found in my book.
Bear in mind this is a draft. If I was writing the chapter today, I’d include a discussion of the ideas of Dennis Noble. In this YouTube interview, Noble explains with references the current revolution in biology, which is taking the discipline far beyond the Neo-Darwinian synthesis that dominated the twentieth century. It’s a good starting point to understand the new biology. Federico Faggin’s book Irreducible is also a strong source from a post-materialist perspective. Faggin also thinks that life, as well as consciousness, is irreducible to mechanism.
I hope you find this chapter a little bit thought-provoking and interesting!