How are his aspects of ‘complexification’ active in the evolution of consciousness?

Today’s Post

Last week we began to see how Teilhard articulates his ‘metric of complexification’ into discrete facets which can be seen in each stage of evolution as it unfolds in the universe.  We began by seeing how this upward force can be seen in such things as a ‘thrust forward in spontaneity’ and a ‘luxuriant unleashing of fanciful creations’ that can be seen as products of evolution unfold from one stage to the next in each step of evolution.

This week we will address Teilhard’s other five facets that can be observed in this process:

• unbridled expansion
• a leap into the improbable
• essentially new type of corpuscular grouping
• more supple and better centered organization of an unlimited number of substances
• internal onset of a new type of conscious activity and determination

With this last characteristic of ‘complexification’ we can begin to see how increase in complexity leads to the emergence of ‘consciousness’, and hence to the threshold of the evolutionary phase of ‘thought’.

Teilhard’s Facets of ‘Complexification’, Continued

Unbridled expansion

As can be seen in the increasing numbers associated with stages of evolution in the first metric mentioned last week, ‘spontaneity’, there seems to be no upper limit to the potential of organization of biological products of evolution.  While the physical nature of this planet surely imposes such a limit, the process of evolution thus far seems unaware of it.

With the explosion of human ideas, quantified in the form of the zigabytes of data on the internet, there seems to be no upper limit.

Leap into the improbable

While clearly anachronistic, how could one stand at the universal stage of pre-atomic dispersal of matter at the birth of the universe, made up of particles no more complex than electrons, and predict that these bits of ‘the stuff of the universe’ would eventually self-assemble into ever more complex arrangements with ever increasing potential for further growth?  Such a prediction would seem even more improbable as evolution continues into the realm of DNA molecules instructing RNA in the fabrication of proteins that would specify how cells would develop their amazing range of functionality.  Seen thusly, not only is the future ever more ‘fanciful’ but seems also increasingly ‘improbable’.

Essentially new type of corpuscular grouping

All this new functional complexity by necessity comes layered upon structural complexity.  The increase in the atom’s functional potential to arrange themselves into molecules, for example, is clearly accompanied by an increase in structure.  The groupings of proteins seen in the intricate windings of DNA could not have achieved the potential eventually realized in the cell without finding a way to enclose themselves into self-contained, skin-enclosed and ‘centered’ configurations.

Teilhard mentions many times that matter is the enclosure for the agency of increased complexity.  As we will see later, this simple but undeniable observation is essential to understanding such slippery subjects as ‘consciousness’ and ‘spirituality’.

More supple and better centered organization of an unlimited number of substances

Again, in Teilhard’s example of the cell, we can see yet another characteristic of ‘complexification’.  In the cell,

“We find a triumph of multiplicity originally organically contained within a minimum of space.”

   For the molecule, already achieving an unprecedented level of complexity with its spiral of interconnected amino acids which find ways to replicate themselves, we can see in the cell a ‘packaging’ in which these spirals can fold in upon themselves and form a ‘vehicle’ which is now able to not only replicate, but to ramify and therefore explore all available avenues for further increases in complexity.  The complexity of this ‘packaging’ also provides something not found in the precedent molecule: a center.   And, as can be seen in the study of biological evolution, those products that are more ‘centered’ are more ‘supple’ and hence evolve their ‘complexity’ more quickly.

Internal onset of a new type of conscious activity and determination

This last of Teilhard’s quantifications of ‘complexity’ opens the door to addressing the slippery concept of ‘consciousness’.  Much of science has addressed it, from psychology to neurology, without coming to a consensus on either its ontology or its mechanisms.

Teilhard correctly recognizes that the locus of consciousness in is better situated within the phenomenon of complexity.  Simply stated: “the more complex a product of evolution is, the more consciousness it contains”.  From his perspective, ‘consciousness’ does not appear only in the ‘higher’ orders of living things, such as brain-centered animals, but is present to some degree in each element of matter everywhere in the cosmos.  That it only manifests itself to the eyes of science in its more advanced form is a limitation of the instruments we use to detect it and not evidence of absence.

What remains in charting the rise of ‘complexity’ through the evolution of the universe is to understand how such a thing as ‘consciousness’ can be seen as a new ‘vehicle’ necessary for the continuation of the fourteen billion years of the rise of evolution into the future.   How can this ‘new vehicle’ be understood?

Next Week

This week we looked at the remaining five of Teilhard’s facets of ‘complexification’ as they can be seen to be active in the process of evolution as it continues in the cosmos.  In the fifth facet we begin to see how the phenomenon of consciousness is not ‘layered onto’ an inanimate universe but instead rises slowly as it unfolds through all its stages.

Next week we will look at this phenomenon as it breaks through into the third of Teilhard’s evolutionary phases, “thought”.