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Authors: Antonio Damasio
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the cell’s DNA is housed.) 8
The complicated neural mechanics of “value” molecules is an important topic that many committed neuroscience researchers are attempting to unravel. What prompts the nuclei to release those molecules? Where in the brain and body are they released precisely? What does their release accomplish? Somehow discussions about the fascinating new facts come up short when one turns to the central question: Where is the engine for the value systems? What is the biological primitive of value? In other words, where is the impetus for this byzantine machinery? Why did it even begin? Why did it turn out to be this way?
Without a doubt, the popular molecules and their nuclei of origin are important parts of the machinery of value. But they are not the answer to the questions posed above. I see value as indelibly tied to need, and need as tied to life. The valuations we establish in everyday social and cultural activities have a direct or indirect connection with homeostasis. That connection explains why human brain circuitry has been so extravagantly dedicated to the prediction and detection of gains and losses, not to mention the promotion of gains and the fear of losses. It explains, in other words, the human obsession with assignation of value.
Value relates directly or indirectly to survival. In the case of humans in particular, value also relates to the quality of that survival in the form of well-being . The notion of survival—and, by extension, the notion of biological value—can be applied to varied biological entities, from molecules and genes to whole organisms. I shall consider the whole organism perspective first.
Biological Value in Whole Organisms
Crudely stated, the paramount value for whole organisms consists of healthy survival to an age compatible with reproductive success. Natural selection has perfected the machinery of homeostasis to permit precisely that. Accordingly, the physiological state of a living organism’s tissues, within an optimal homeostatic range, is the deepest origin of biological value and valuations. The statement applies equally to multicellular organisms and to those whose living “tissue” is confined to one cell.
The ideal homeostatic range is not absolute—it varies according to the context in which an organism is placed. But toward the extremes of the homeostatic range, the viability of living tissue declines and the risk of disease and death increases; within a certain sector of the range, however, living tissues flourish and their function becomes more efficient and economic. Operating near the extremes of the range, if only for brief periods of time, is actually an important advantage in unfavorable life conditions, but nonetheless life states operating close to the efficient range are preferable. It is reasonable to conclude that the primitive of organism value is inscribed in the configurations of physiological parameters. Biological value moves up or down a scale relative to the life-effectiveness of the physical state. In a way, biological value is a surrogate of physiological efficiency.
My hypothesis is that objects and processes we confront in our daily lives acquire their assigned value by reference to this primitive of naturally selected organism value. The values that humans attribute to objects and activities would bear some relation, no matter how indirect or remote, to the two following conditions: first, the general maintenance of living tissue within the homeostatic range suitable to its current context; second, the particular regulation required for the process to operate within the sector of the homeostatic range associated with well-being relative to the current context.
For whole organisms, then, the primitive of value is the physiological state of living tissue within a survivable, homeostatic range . The continuous representation of chemical parameters within the brain allows nonconscious brain devices to detect and measure
The complicated neural mechanics of “value” molecules is an important topic that many committed neuroscience researchers are attempting to unravel. What prompts the nuclei to release those molecules? Where in the brain and body are they released precisely? What does their release accomplish? Somehow discussions about the fascinating new facts come up short when one turns to the central question: Where is the engine for the value systems? What is the biological primitive of value? In other words, where is the impetus for this byzantine machinery? Why did it even begin? Why did it turn out to be this way?
Without a doubt, the popular molecules and their nuclei of origin are important parts of the machinery of value. But they are not the answer to the questions posed above. I see value as indelibly tied to need, and need as tied to life. The valuations we establish in everyday social and cultural activities have a direct or indirect connection with homeostasis. That connection explains why human brain circuitry has been so extravagantly dedicated to the prediction and detection of gains and losses, not to mention the promotion of gains and the fear of losses. It explains, in other words, the human obsession with assignation of value.
Value relates directly or indirectly to survival. In the case of humans in particular, value also relates to the quality of that survival in the form of well-being . The notion of survival—and, by extension, the notion of biological value—can be applied to varied biological entities, from molecules and genes to whole organisms. I shall consider the whole organism perspective first.
Biological Value in Whole Organisms
Crudely stated, the paramount value for whole organisms consists of healthy survival to an age compatible with reproductive success. Natural selection has perfected the machinery of homeostasis to permit precisely that. Accordingly, the physiological state of a living organism’s tissues, within an optimal homeostatic range, is the deepest origin of biological value and valuations. The statement applies equally to multicellular organisms and to those whose living “tissue” is confined to one cell.
The ideal homeostatic range is not absolute—it varies according to the context in which an organism is placed. But toward the extremes of the homeostatic range, the viability of living tissue declines and the risk of disease and death increases; within a certain sector of the range, however, living tissues flourish and their function becomes more efficient and economic. Operating near the extremes of the range, if only for brief periods of time, is actually an important advantage in unfavorable life conditions, but nonetheless life states operating close to the efficient range are preferable. It is reasonable to conclude that the primitive of organism value is inscribed in the configurations of physiological parameters. Biological value moves up or down a scale relative to the life-effectiveness of the physical state. In a way, biological value is a surrogate of physiological efficiency.
My hypothesis is that objects and processes we confront in our daily lives acquire their assigned value by reference to this primitive of naturally selected organism value. The values that humans attribute to objects and activities would bear some relation, no matter how indirect or remote, to the two following conditions: first, the general maintenance of living tissue within the homeostatic range suitable to its current context; second, the particular regulation required for the process to operate within the sector of the homeostatic range associated with well-being relative to the current context.
For whole organisms, then, the primitive of value is the physiological state of living tissue within a survivable, homeostatic range . The continuous representation of chemical parameters within the brain allows nonconscious brain devices to detect and measure
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