What could a neuron “want”? The energy and raw materials it needs to thrive—just like its unicellular eukaryote ancestors and more distant cousins, the bacteria and archaea. Neurons are sorta robots; they are certainly not conscious in any rich sense—remember, they are eukaryotic cells, akin to yeast cells or fungi. If individual neurons are conscious, then so is athlete’s foot. But neurons are, like yeast and fungi, highly competent agents in a life-or-death struggle, not in the environment between your toes but in the demanding environment between your ears, where the victories go to those
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