(G.1) Those reactions prompted by a
change in the environment without consciousness of
the change in the environment we shall call induced action.
(G.2) The melting of solid ice into liquid water and the
production of gaseous steam by heating liquid water is an example of induced
action. In this case the induced action occurs in
the absence of both brain and mind and the induced
actions are controlled entirely and directly by the laws of
nature. These induced actions we shall call extrinsically
induced actions with neither mind nor
biological determinism playing a role in them.
(G.3) The Venus fly trap plant also produces induced action by
closing its leaves around an insect crawling on them. However, it does not do
so instantaneously in time present but only after
experiencing a pair of stimuli over a time interval
as it develops a physical awareness which it
subsequently uses to produce an intrinsically induced action. But
does the ability to distinguish between a single stimulus of, say, a falling
twig striking it which does not cause the leaf trap to close and a pair of
stimuli required to close the trap mean that the Venus fly trap have a physical
brain, a mind and perhaps even the sensation
of consciousness? No evidence suggests that it does. But,
in fact, it does have a botanical sensory system which plays a
role in intrinsically inducing the action as a
result of biological determinism. This is comparable to the
stomach brain in humans which produces physical awareness in
the gastrointestinal tract but no consciousness in the
cerebral brain in our head.
The Venus fly trap performs the intrinsically induced
action it must just as the human gastrointestinal does when stimulated
to swallow food the food in your mouth, push it thought the stomach and
intestines, and finally excrete it as waste out the back end. You have no conscious control
over any of that and you can only wait until your stomach brain
stimulates some action out the back end.
Similarly, leaves on trees experience intrinsically
induced action by turning into the sunlight and limbs on tress
growing into spatial areas affording them the most available light even thought
no physical part of the plant can be identified as a brain
Movement of our hand away from a hot stove surface is also
an intrinsically induced action arising from awareness
in our brain by way of the sensory data
producing the quale of pain . But it is not a
conscious action. Biological determinism initiates
the action before we develop conscious of the
action. Furthermore, the brain has made the decision for
this intrinsically induced action before we develop consciousness of
the action. Indeed, both brain and biological
determinism play the active role of inducing both action and
the subsequent consciousness of the actions. Studies have shown
that an interval of time of up to 7 seconds may elapse
between the decision to initiated action and consciousness
of the resulting action. It is the physical awareness that
prompts action and not consciousness. As an
example, people who have lost the ability to pass sensory data to
the brain from the hand often burn their hand due to lack of awareness of
their hand being burned even when their mind is fully conscious.
Both the examples of the Venus fly trap and the amoeba
suggest that awareness that results in intrinsically induced
action is more closely linked to the chemistry of the living thing than
to any specific physical parts that comprise the living thing.
That is the thing is simply following the laws of
nature in producing the induced action by way
of biological determinism.
(G) Human reactions are intrinsically induced by awareness of humans of their environment. The actions and decision for taking these actions are made by the brain
before anyconsciousness of them arises. Intrinsically induced awareness requires a wakeful mind for process sensory inputs but does not require a state of consciousness in the mind.