20101118 (J)
Journal: November 18, 2010
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Purpose                       Souls

Life’s Fire: The purpose of consciousness, if it can be said to have a purpose, may be to protect mitochondria, constituting another layer, shell or semi-permeable membrane that deters uninvited stuff from dousing the fire within. Double walled (shelled) mitochondria resemble double walled bacteria.

Bacteria have been building more layers ever since they became mitochondria. Each layer is an expemiment: cell walls, tree limbs, dogs, cars, buildings, and consciousness. These experimental layers must be only mildly interfering with the flow of fuel (glucose) to mitochondria, else the fire will throw them away.

Some experiments, to anthropomorphize again, seem quite outlandish, e.g. Styracasaurus and consciousness. Styracasaurus and human consciousness secured the fire for a brief while in the history of the fire. Will human consciousness do the same as Styracasaurus? or will it be the only experimental shell outside cell walls to survive? (cells have survived since shortly after the fire began randomly experimenting with proteins, using some excess energy to assemble complex proteins then RNA)