Cellosophy is our attempt to understand cognition from the bottom up, starting with the living cell instead of the human brain. You don't need a brain to have a mind. Information is metabolized, and that's where I begin.
How the word moved
We launched it in July 2026 as a co-written newsletter. In Habitability, the same month, I described it as a focused exploration of the alien umwelts that cohabit the earth.
In my words
"Welcome to Cellosophy: our attempt to understand cognition from the bottom up, beginning not with the human brain but with the living cell."
from You Don’t Need a Brain to Have a Mind, 16 Jul 2026
"Information is not just processed; it is metabolized."
from You Don’t Need a Brain to Have a Mind, 16 Jul 2026
Related
- Depends on Basal Cognition - its research programme.
- Inherited from Jakob von Uexkull - Umwelt is his word, and it's in our bibliography.
- Related Autopoiesis - where enactivism and cybernetics come in.
- Related Planetary Alterity - the alien umwelts all around us.
Still open
Maybe the cognitive framing reduces to the physics of complex hierarchical systems. I don't know. If it does, that would be good to know too.