Piero Scaruffi

These are excerpts and elaborations from my book "The Nature of Consciousness"

The Purpose Of A Brain The British neurologist John Young�once argued that "the most important thing about living beings is that they remain alive". A stable state (homeostasis) is what they aim for. Young�claims that homeostasis is precisely the job of the brain, the most delicate job of all.� Homeostasis requires appropriate responses to the environment, responses whose goal is to keep the state stable.� The brain's job is to maintain homeostasis through the selection of appropriate responses.� The brain is the computer of a �homeostat�.� This computer uses a memory, or, better, two memories. One memory is the one created by evolution and inherited at birth, that contains knowledge that can be used in many commonly-occurring situations, whereas the other memory (the one we call "memory") is the one that contains up-to-date knowledge about the outcome of actions during our lifetime. What these two memories do is to collect information (over generations or over a lifetime) that helps the brain define the desired state and maintain that stable state.   Back to the beginning of the chapter "Inside The Brain" | Back to the index of all chapters