# Mind and Neurons May Be Complementary Properties of One System by Michael Gazzaniga > "While I find this a tricky idea on the one hand, it is utterly simple and elegant on the other. Pattee has given us a schema and a way to think about how, using nothing but physics (including the principle of complementarity), life comes out of non-living stuff. The schema, way up the evolutionary scale, also accounts for how the subjective mind can emerge from objective neurons. Pattee suggests that instead of approaching conscious cognition as either information processing or neural dynamics, there is a third approach available. Consciousness is not reducible to one or the other. Both should be kept on the table. They are complementary properties of the same system. I say hats off to Pattee. We brain scientists have our work cut out for us." > **— Michael Gazzaniga**, *2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [The Schnitt](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27049) — Edge published this passage in its 2017 Annual Question collection, *What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known?*. The full response preserves the qualifications and argument surrounding this exact extract. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2017 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2017 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first archive record for the complete yearly response cohort. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] - **Article:** [[articles/Escape Hatch in the Skull|Escape Hatch in the Skull]] - **Article:** [[articles/Science of Digital Consciousness|Science of Digital Consciousness]] - **Article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Host Infrastructure Overview]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Emergence|Emergence]] - [[wiki/Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure|Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure]] - [[wiki/Biological Naturalism|Biological Naturalism]] - [[wiki/world and embodied models|world and embodied models]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "While I find this a tricky idea on the one hand, it is utterly simple and elegant on the other. Pattee has given us a schema and a way to think about how, using nothing but physics (including the principle of complementarity), life comes out of non-living stuff. The schema, way up the evolutionary scale, also accounts for how the subjective mind can emerge from objective neurons. Pattee suggests that instead of approaching conscious cognition as either information processing or neural dynamics, there is a third approach available. Consciousness is not reducible to one or the other. Both should be kept on the table. They are complementary properties of the same system. I say hats off to Pattee. We brain scientists have our work cut out for us." — Michael Gazzaniga, 2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-michael-gazzaniga-mind-neurons-complementary ```