A History of Bodies, Brains, and Minds: The Evolution of Life and Consciousness By Francisco Aboitiz
Yes, we are all awfully familiar with the theory of evolution—Lamarck, Darwin, and Wallace are names etched into the annals of scientific thought.
And yes, the canonical depiction of a linear ascent from ape to human has become so pervasive as to border on cliché.
Typically, evolution is understood as the transformation of living organisms—the modification of species unfolding over time following life’s inception.
Yet, this conventional understanding may be myopic and reductive.
At least I for one was not aware that evolutionary processes predate the emergence of life itself, originating initially within the realm of non-living matter.
Following the Earth’s initial cooling and the accretion of primordial oceans, simple organic molecules such as amino acids and nucleotides emerged through chemical reactions driven by energy sources like lightning, ultraviolet radiation, and geothermal heat. These molecules accumulated in the primordial soup, providing the essential building blocks for life.
Over time, these biomolecules underwent polymerization into complex macromolecules such as RNA and proteins, culminating in the advent of self-replicating entities and protocells enclosed by primitive lipid membranes —crucial precursors to living organisms.
Meanwhile, the early atmosphere, predominately anoxic and composed of methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide but lacking oxygen, limited the range of possible life forms. The evolution of oxygenic photosynthetic microorganisms, notably cyanobacteria, transformed the atmosphere in a process culminating in the Great Oxygenation Event around 2.4 billion years ago. This rise in atmospheric oxygen enabled aerobic metabolism, a far more efficient way to produce energy, which in turn supported the evolution of more complex and energy-demanding life. At the same time, plate tectonics played an essential role by recycling nutrients and regulating the climate, creating diverse and stable environments that fostered the growth and diversification of life across the planet.
Evolution is a continuum, beginning not with life itself but with prebiotic chemistry and planetary development. In this sense, non-living matter—molecules, minerals, planetary systems—underwent their own evolution, shaped by physical laws, chemical pathways, and environmental conditions, setting the stage for life to eventually emerge. While these scientific facts aren’t new, our gaze upon it is renewed
So what? Why linger on semantics? Why quibble over definition? Why dwell on boundaries? Isn’t this academic reframing just a taxonomic expansion? What tangible difference does it make if we define evolution narrowly within the biological domain or extend it to include the prebiotic process?
Well, at first glance, it may seem like a reclassification with little consequence. Yet this reorientation alters the entire conceptual terrain upon which we understand our brain and consciousness.
Consciousness presents itself as the most indubitable of realities yet remains the most recalcitrant to assimilation within our scientific paradigms. It is through consciousness that we apprehend the very fabric of existence, and yet, amid the sweeping triumphs of science in countless domains, our understanding of consciousness remains strikingly impoverished.
In recent years, my sustained inquiry into the nature of consciousness has drawn my attention to classic texts such as Laureys’s The Neurology of Consciousness, Dennett’s Consciousness Explained, Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Metzinger’s Being No One, and Damasio’s Self Comes to Mind.
Equally compelling have been interdisciplinary works that bridge neurobiology and quantum physics or philosophy, including Philip Goff’s Galileo’s Error, Rosenblum and Kuttner’s Quantum Enigma, and Carlo Rovelli’s Helgoland which intertwines the interpretive challenges of quantum mechanics with questions about mind and observer. Within this context, Aboitiz’s A History of Bodies, Brains, and Minds presented itself as a natural continuation of this evolving exploration—one that recontextualize consciousness not merely as a property of life, but as a phenomenon rooted in the broader evolutionary arc of matter itself.
In A History of Bodies, Brains, and Minds, Francisco Aboitiz presents a synthesized account of the ontogeny of life, neural systems, and cognition, extending from primordial living organisms to the emergence of Homo sapiens. Anchored in the Darwinian axiom that natural selection constitutes the fundamental mechanism driving biological transformation, Aboitiz illustrated that the brain—and by implication, the mind—is a biological artifact shaped through gradual phylogenetic refinement. This volume articulates the developmental continuum by which animal anatomies incorporated increasingly sophisticated nervous systems, culminating in a species characterized by symbolic thought, technological innovation, linguistic complexity, and self-reflective consciousness.
This leaf of copy is not thick, but the content is dense. The book is divided into fifteen chapters across four parts, each addressing key transitions in the evolutionary journey that led to Homo sapiens. The book first lays the conceptual groundwork, offering a concise overview of evolutionary theory and an exploration of the essential characteristics of life—self-organization, heredity, and homeostasis.
The second part interrogates the early stages of biological complexity and the incipient nervous systems. It considers how the first cells may have arisen with the ability to maintain and replicate themselves, the evolutionary leap to multicellularity, and the origin of neurons. This section also introduces the basic principles of neural circuits, which form the foundation for more advanced nervous systems. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 5 where the text is dedicated to the main characteristics and early history of neurons.
The third part engages with the phylogenetic deepening of neural sophistication. The chapters address the behavioral sophistication of invertebrates such as insects and cephalopods; the evolution of vertebrates and their cranial structures; and the progressive elaboration of the vertebrate brain, with a focus on reptiles, birds, and mammals. Particular attention is given to the olfactory and sensory specializations that shaped the mammalian cerebral cortex, culminating in an analysis of neocortical structure, connectivity, and its central role in cognition.
Last but not least, the fourth part encompassing the final five chapters, concentrates on the singular trajectory of the human lineage. It considers the evolutionary emergence of Homo sapiens as a bipedal primate distinguished by encephalization, refined manipulative capacity, and cumulative culture. This section further investigates the neurobiological underpinnings of language and symbolic thought, the embodied and multimodal roots of communication, and the co-evolution of intersubjectivity and linguistic world-building. The discussion addresses consciousness—surveying prevailing theoretical frameworks and underscoring the role of language in its reflexive amplification. The final chapter offers reflections on the future of human cognition in light of biological evolution, cultural acceleration, and technological augmentation, concluding with a cosmological meditation on the possibility of life and intelligence beyond Earth.
My focus, of course, lies with Chapter 14, the section devoted to consciousness, wherein the author engages with a constellation of unresolved questions that continue to preoccupy both philosophy and neuroscience. Among these are: How might consciousness be rigorously defined? Through what evolutionary pathways did it arise? Which non-human species possess conscious experience, and in what form? Most critically, the chapter interrogates the persistent enigma of why, despite increasingly sophisticated neuroimaging techniques, we remain unable to isolate or pinpoint the neural substrate in which consciousness ostensibly resides.
The author’s stance is strict biological materialism, no surprise. He articulates a biologically grounded, emergentist view of consciousness, situated firmly within a materialist framework yet resistant to reductive localization. Rather than subscribing to dualism or panpsychism, he posits that consciousness arises from the dynamic interplay of distributed neural circuits—particularly those governing language, social cognition, and higher-order symbolic processes. Its genesis is not attributable to any singular anatomical locus but is instead contingent upon evolutionary adaptations that scaffold intersubjectivity and abstract thought. This theoretical orientation explained why empirical neuroscience has thus far failed to isolate a definitive neural correlate of consciousness: the prevailing methodologies presuppose a discrete, static object, whereas consciousness, in the author’s account, is inherently relational, fluid, and contextually modulated. The elusive nature of its neural signature may thus reflect not the absence of a mechanistic basis, but the inadequacy of existing conceptual and technical paradigms to apprehend a phenomenon that is fundamentally emergent and interactive.
And circling back to the author’s insistence that evolution originates in inanimate matter, that serves as a conceptual pivot, dismantling the dichotomy between the lifeless and the living and establishing a continuum through which complexity incrementally accrues. By extending evolutionary logic to prebiotic processes, he reframes consciousness not as an ontological rupture but as the culmination of deeply embedded material dynamics—chemical, geological, and cosmological—that precede biology itself.
I did have a minor issue with the book. When it comes to the topic of consciousness, the author examines the two most influential contemporary theories. He narrows his inquiry to the most widely debated frameworks in recent discourse: Giulio Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and the Global Workspace Theory (GWS) advanced by Bernard Baars and Stan Franklin. IIT posits the existence of a highly integrated neural network—so densely interconnected that it functions as an irreducible, unified whole. In contrast, GWS envisions a distributed cognitive architecture wherein disparate processes converge within a centralized “workspace” to generate a coherent, multidimensional representation from which decisions and behavioral outputs emerge.
The author does not mention in the book that these two paradigms were formally subjected to a landmark five-year empirical contest initiated in 2019. Yet, by 2024, no conclusive verdict had emerged. The scientific community received the outcome with mixed reactions: detractors criticized the failure to experimentally differentiate the theories, while advocates lauded the endeavor for propelling the discipline forward through the generation of rigorous, novel datasets and fostering further adversarial collaborations. This epistemic uncertainty highlights the inherent limitations of current methodological frameworks in probing the enigma of consciousness. Including this context would have enriched the author’s exposition, providing a more comprehensive and nuanced perspective on the contemporary state of consciousness research.
There are many parts of this book I enjoyed. For example, the section examining the emergence of the first mammals and their survival in a dinosaur-dominated world. Here, the author highlights the distinct characteristics of mammalian brains, particularly the development of the cerebral cortex. Moreover, sensory capacities underwent significant shifts: early mammals possessed diminished vision but enhanced olfaction, tactile sensitivity, and hearing. In addition, anatomical changes in the head and neck supported these refined senses. The enhanced olfactory system is closely linked to the hippocampus, thereby facilitating advanced spatial orientation and short-term memory. The book also presents compelling insights into vocal communication among birds and primates, as well as the relationship between tool use and language. Furthermore, it explores the speech loop and its connection to working memory in facilitating speech. It is particularly interesting to learn that manual gestures and vocalizations co-evolved, indicating that communication has long been inherently multimodal. I also enjoyed the part reflecting on how culture and technology have reshaped our nervous system, such as the specialization of certain brain regions for reading, along with the discussion on recent technological innovations and their broader implications for society and the environment.
Overall, this is a denser read and took me longer than usual, but I’d still highly recommend it.
