9. Brain Function Is Organised By The Recognisable

The brain as recognition system is organised by the domains that it recognises. The domains that it recognises are both ouside and inside the body. The outside, which can include the meaningful expressions of others, is recognised via sensory sheets which detect external difference. The inside includes domains both outside and inside the brain. Outside the brain includes the musculo-skeletal system, which it detects via the peripheral nervous system, and homeostatic systems, to which it is connected via the limbic system. Inside the brain includes all the processes involved in recognising domains both inside the body but outside the brain and outside the body — an ability that varies across animal species. 

The recognition process, as the selection of variants by the domains being recognised, can be understood as the brain adapting to those domains: to the ecological context of the body (which includes the behaviours of other bodies), to the somatic context of the brain, and to the brain’s own recognition processes. Just as “Nature” selects genetic potential-for-development in the evolution of a species, “Nature” selects neurological potential-for-behaviour in the evolution of a neurological system embedded in the body of an organism in its lifetime.

ChatGPT said:

The Brain Organised by What It Recognises

The brain, as a recognition system, is organised by the domains it recognises. These domains include both what lies outside the body and what lies within it.

The external domains — which may include the meaningful expressions of others — are recognised through sensory sheets that detect difference beyond the body. The internal domains are both outside and inside the brain. Those outside the brain include the musculo-skeletal system, monitored via the peripheral nervous system, and homeostatic systems, connected through the limbic system. Those inside the brain include the brain’s own processes of recognition — which monitor both internal and external domains. The capacity to recognise such domains varies across species.

Recognition, on this model, is a selectional process: the domain being recognised selects some neural variants over others. In this sense, the brain adapts to the domains it recognises — to the ecological context of the body (including the behaviour of other bodies), to the somatic context of the brain, and to its own evolving processes of recognition.

Just as Nature selects genetic potential-for-development in biological evolution, Nature selects neurological potential-for-behaviour in the ontogeny of the brain: a recognition system embedded in a body, adapting in real time to the contexts in which it must function.