On the physics of the emergence of sensorimotor control in the absence of the brain

Abstract

The evolutionary origin of sensorimotor control requires a sort of physical durability, other than Galilean inertia being accessible in third-person description in the present tense. One candidate to address this need is the 'class property' of a material body's durability remaining invariant during the exchange of component elements. Using grammatical tense as a descriptive attribute, this durability is accessible only in the frequent update of the present perfect tense in the present progressive tense at the 'now' of the present moment. In this view, the update of the perfect tense is equated with the onset and occurrence of on/off switching behavior of physical origin underlying the phenomena of sensorimotor control. Notably, the physical update of the perfect tense is specific only to the 'now and here' that is central in the tradition of phenomenology. The phenomena upholding thermodynamics, when taken apart from its theory, are decisive in facilitating the onset of sensorimotor control. Instrumental to the emergence of both life in general and sensorimotor control in particular may be the occurrence of a 'physical and chemical affinity' of the material bodies of whatever type. Such will let the constant exchange of component elements be feasible, so that the class identity equipped with the capacity for measurement is made available within the phenomenon. Material bodies constantly exchanging such component elements would make the material world open to biology by allowing each element to experience the organizational whole from within. The internal observer responsible for the origins of life may do double duty of letting itself be durable on the material basis while observing the conditions making it durable on the linguistic ground. The origins of life appear to us a material phenomenon when they are approached with use of our linguistic tools that can get rid of the strict stipulation of an abstract nature applied to the description of dynamical laws in physics.

Keywords: Class identity; Decidability; Internal measurement; Observer; Sensorimotor control; Tense; Time.