Is Your Whole Body Conscious? Biological Idealism: From Cells to Selves

Is the brain really the source of mind, or is consciousness something more deeply biological?

In this conversation, Anna Ciaunica challenges neurocentrism and explores the idea that cognition may not begin with neurons at all. We examine neuroimmune coupling, pregnancy as a nested model of subjectivity, basal intelligence before brains, and the fragile embodied self revealed in depersonalization experiences.

We also explore biological idealism, multiscale intelligence, and whether artificial systems can ever replicate the ontological structure of living organisms.

Topics include:• Neurocentrism and its limits• Immune systems as fact-checkers for survival• Basal cognition before neurons• Pregnancy and nested subjectivity• The fragile embodied self• Depersonalization & active inference• Touch and self-other boundaries• Biological idealism explained• Ontological differences between AI and life• Multiscale intelligence and self-organizationThis episode moves from cells to selves to artificial systems, and asks whether experience might be more fundamental than we assume.