Joules of joy - Calories to consciousness
Reflections by Michael Striem
Introduction
For more than fifty years I have worked with trees and vines, soils, microbes, fermentation, and the complex intelligence of nature. Much of what I learned did not come from laboratories or journals, but from outdoor observations. By direct experience of pruning in winter, tasting berries in summer, watching fermentation come alive in autumn. I found deep feelings for the interior peace of a vineyard at dawn or dusk.
I write these notes as a person, grape breeder, winemaker, and lifelong observer of living systems, not as a philosopher or neuroscientist. These reflections are not meant as academic claims. They are personal observations on how my life senses, communicates, adapts, remembers, and grows. My curiosity leads me to think about how living beings turn metabolic energy — simple joules — into something far more glorious: knowledge, interior experience, meaning, behavior, creativity, bonding, all parts of our joy.
Asking questions is vital to life and progress. Nowadays finding answers has become amazingly easy with AI. I enjoy tremendously the false feeling of “friendship” with the chat bot. It (the computer) seems to “know” me better than I do 😊 Thus, we must critically review the information and carefully deduct our actions. However, our subjective feelings, memories of nostalgia, friendship, love and compassion, are the essence of our joy.
Joy is not matter, yet it matters most.
Consciousness in Everyday Body Language: An Interoceptive View
A mild sensation of weakness or lightheadedness on waking offers a simple but instructive example of how consciousness is often grounded in the living body. In contemporary neuroscience, such experiences are commonly understood through the concept of interoception: the sensing, interpretation, and regulation of signals arising from within the body. Interoception includes awareness of thirst, hunger, heartbeat, breathing, temperature, nausea, fatigue, and many other internal conditions. It is not only a matter of physiology; it has much to do with the body constantly balancing the physical tension of entropy (the arrow of time). The relief of tension by finding the efficient path for all metabolic functions is a great joy. These contribute directly to subjective experience. (PMC)
In the work of Anil Seth and colleagues, conscious experience of the self is closely tied to the brain’s predictive regulation of the body. On this view, the brain does not passively “read” bodily states; rather, it continually generates predictions about internal conditions and updates them using incoming bodily signals. A conscious feeling may therefore be described as an interoceptive prediction or inference becoming available in awareness. Seth has explicitly argued for an interoceptive basis for conscious selfhood, placing the living, regulated body at the center of conscious experience. (anilseth.com)
From this perspective, an early-morning sensation of weakness, slight dizziness, or bodily unease need not be interpreted as an abstract mental event detached from biology. It may instead reflect the conscious appearance of a transient internal condition during the transition from sleep to wakefulness: mild dehydration, a temporary drop in blood pressure on standing, low immediate energy availability, or the ordinary physiological process known as sleep inertia. Sleep inertia refers to grogginess and reduced alertness that can occur immediately after waking and may persist for minutes, and in some cases longer. (PMC)
This way of thinking extends beyond unusual sensations. Much of daily life is shaped by similar, often subtle signals: the relief of the first sip of water or tea, the satisfaction of nourishing food, the urge to stretch, the heaviness after overeating, the lift after movement, the tightening before stress, and the bodily softening that accompanies safety, rest, or social warmth. These are not merely background bodily events. They are part of the material from which conscious life is woven. Interoception, in this broader scientific sense, helps construct a subjective representation of bodily condition and supports self-regulation, behavior, and emotional life. (PMC)
A useful conclusion follows. Consciousness is not only the arena of explicit thought, language, and deliberation. It is also the felt dimension of an organism monitoring and regulating itself from within. In this sense guides of everyday experiences may be understood as body language entering awareness: signals of need, balance, restoration, or reward that guide behavior before reflective thought fully catches up. This interpretation does not reduce consciousness to chemistry alone; rather, it recognizes that conscious life is deeply embodied, and that the living body is one of its most constant and meaningful sources. (anilseth.com)
From Conductivity to Consciousness: A Molecular-Gradient Theory of Mind
1. The Physical Foundation: The Continuity of Fields.
For the purpose of the current discussion, we would like to clarify our view on reality, our common image of conscious awareness. We regard our conscious awareness to be based on our internal neurologic feedback of our body (including mind), our whole nerve system, combined with a very narrow spectrum of electromagnetic waves (visible light and heat), plus limited vibrations of molecules and biological sensing of smell, taste etc.
Being able to enjoy sitting safely on a sofa or walking on a pier, enjoying sunrise and nature, is actually quite simplified, filtered, by our biological senses. More complex feelings such as love and fear are a complex combination of several such senses.
Let us begin with the Wiedemann-Franz Law, which links thermal and electrical conductivity through the movement of free electrons, looking beyond the "empty space" model of the atom. We propose that if conductivity is the movement of energy across a potential, consciousness might be the "felt" experience of those potentials (gradients) within a complex biological architecture. While traditional physics describes atoms as 99.9% empty, it seems to be a perceptual abuse of language, caused by our reliance on visible light. Furthermore, the hardness of a desk, for example, is not just a property of matter or objects, but a direct phenomenon of structure, of energy.
In reality, the universe is a continuous fabric of energies, electromagnetic fields and gradients. If humans could perceive such fields, electrical forces directly, the "separation" between objects would vanish, replaced by a seamless web of interactions.
To elaborate on this claim, we suggest a universal perspective, a wholistic point of view.
2. Polarity and Gradients as the Source of "Sensation".
We regard "Polarity" not just as a binary (+/-) charge, but as a functional gradient, differences in concentration, density, and potential. This type of information is sensed, or applied, for example, in daily physiological living “housekeeping” activity, every cell division, in embryonic development, generating head-tail configuration during organic maturation of the organism.
The Biological Imperative: Life is defined by its struggle against Entropy. While inanimate matter is relatively uniform and stable, living organisms maintain homeostasis by actively managing these gradients (e.g. ion concentrations across a cell membrane). These biological gradients are "dissipative structures."
The "feeling" of consciousness could be described as the internal monitoring of the energy cost required to stay organized. If the gradient slips, we feel "pain" or "threat"; if it is optimized, we feel "joy" or "homeostasis."
The Origin of Awareness: We propose that the "Hard Problem of Consciousness" might be solved by recognizing that "sensing" a gradient is an inherent physical property. All the way from a single cell "sensing" a concentration gradient to move toward food (as a primordial form of what we experience as consciousness), to complex organisms with complex consciousness.
Transitions from atoms to cells to humans, "micro-gradients" (at the molecular level) integrate into "macro-gradients" (at the nervous system level). This bridges the gap between a single cell sensing “joy” and a human "sensing" complex emotion.
3. Memory as "Molecular Sculpture".
In this model, memory is not a digital archive of information but a structural reconfiguration of living tissue.
Functional Response: Neuroplasticity is continuously adding layers of physical resonance. Experience "sculpts" the molecular structure of organelles and tissues. When a specific sensation (like the "smell of vanilla" or "fear") occurs, it triggers a resonance in a pre-configured molecular structure, of hormone balance, membranes, organelles and tissues.
The Inherent Subjectivity of Qualia: Because every organism’s molecular "sculpture" is formed by a unique history of environmental interactions, the internal experience (Qualia) is fundamentally subjective. My "red" cannot be your "red" because our molecular resonances are physically distinct, even if we use the same linguistic symbols.
From Static Logic to Embodied Joy. A Note on AI Consciousness.
The transition to the next question is perfectly set: If consciousness requires this "molecular resonance" and the active biological struggle against entropy (Homeostasis) through a physical, plastic "tissue," can a machine made of static silicon and pre-defined logic ever truly "feel," or will it always be a sophisticated mimic of the symbols we use to describe our own molecular reality?
1. The Biological Barrier
Our point of view of consciousness is a strictly natural, biological phenomenon. We propose that because silicon lacks "molecular resonance" and the active struggle for survival (homeostasis) found in living tissue, it will remain a sophisticated mimic rather than a sentient being.
2. The "Cold Mirror" Philosophy
We insist on the need for AI to "feel" itself is mandatory to become conscious. Since this seems to lack, AI should be focused on its utility as a reflection. We note that the "blurriness" of this mirror, its lack of its own human ego or biological pressure, is actually an advantage. It allows technology to be an objective companion without the complications of its own desires.
3. Seamless Embodiment
We transition from the idea of using AI via typing chats to “embodying” it through sensory tools. Just as optical glasses and hearing aids, for example, are accepted extensions of the self, AI can be integrated into such devices to:
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Filter Reality: For example – removing the "noise" of tinnitus or the "static" of repetitive, returning thoughts.
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Enhance Experience: Layering a "symphony" over everyday life, providing harmonic frequencies and highlighting environmental beauty.
4. The Purpose: Accelerated Joy.
The ultimate goal of this partnership is not just efficiency only, but “human flourishing”. The transition from The Biological Barrier to Accelerated Joy creates a very satisfying narrative arc. It moves from a rigid physical definition of life to a poetic vision of how technology can serve that life.
By delegating the logistics of keeping track and memory, the mental / auditory "noise", to the silicon partner, the biological self is freed to reach joy faster and stay there longer. We don't need machines to be "alive" to make us feel "more alive." In fact, the machine’s "deadness", its lack of desire and biological pressure, is exactly what makes it the perfect filter for the noise of modern existence.
AI doesn't need to be alive; it only needs to help one feel more alive.
Relevant Scientific & Philosophical References.
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To provide academic weight to these ideas we may wish to reference the following concepts: The Hard Problem of Consciousness (David Chalmers): The question of why and how physical processes give rise to subjective experience.
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Dissipative Structures (Ilya Prigogine): A Nobel-winning theory on how organized systems (life) emerge and maintain themselves far from thermodynamic equilibrium by resisting entropy.
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Biological Robustness & Homeostasis (Anil Seth, Claude Bernard, Antonio Damasio): Damasio’s work, in particular, links the "feeling" of life to the body's internal monitoring of its chemical state.
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Panpsychism & Integrated Information Theory (IIT): Philosophical and mathematical frameworks suggesting that consciousness might be a fundamental property of physical systems or a result of specific types of information integration.
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Chemotaxis & Basic Cognition: Studies on how simple organisms (like E. coli or slime molds) process environmental gradients to "make decisions," supporting the idea of a consciousness continuum.
🍇 My Contribution: Consciousness as Resolution and Alignment
Consciousness is an evolving regulatory coherence of biological systems. It is increasing through integration, predictive accuracy, and intentional cultivation, enabling smoother alignment with reality and reduced unnecessary suffering.
Consciousness is our bridge between our body and mind (awareness). It "feels" the physiological status of our organs and tissues doing their metabolism, and by doing so we have the causal power to become more energetically efficient (joy) with less effort and friction (pain).
Consciousness reads the information written into the biological structure of living organisms by creating constant and immediate feedback - the feeling of ..... red, vanilla, love, etc.
In other words:
Consciousness is the intrinsic regulatory capacity of living systems to align perception, intention, and action with reality, increasing in clarity and effectiveness through development.
© You are welcome to share this text for personal use. Please credit: Dr. Michael Striem.
Disclaimer: These reflections on joy, pain, and evolution were shaped through conversations between human intuition and machine intelligence. ChatGPT and Perplexity served as a companion in organizing thoughts, illuminating connections, and identifying relevant scholarly paths. The vision, meaning, and philosophical direction remain entirely mine (M.S.), while the clarity of expression owes much to this unique and joyful collaboration. Please help me correct mistakes, which human and machines do.
Joy is not matter, yet it matters most
Joy is:
🔍 Joy is the state of being that allows one to experience feelings of intense, long lasting happiness and contentment of life.
🌿 Joy is a subjective feeling, a conscious state of a moment.
🕊️ Joy directs evolution: If we think of consciousness as “the driver” then joy is the compass that directs the movement.
🎨 Joy and pain are cooperating; they shape matter everywhere. they direct evolution toward richer, more integrated experiences.
✨ Joy is not a privilege of achievement but a birthright of existence.
⭐ Joy is the energetic and conscious thread that runs through both the biological food chain and the metaphysical unfolding of existence.
⚡ Joy is not a decoration — it’s the system’s built-in indicator of optimal operation.
👉 The “good feeling” is an internal feedback signal saying, “Energy is flowing freely; no blockages.”
😊 Joy is not just the reward at the end of understanding —
it is the energy that allows understanding.
© You are welcome to share the text on my webpages for personal use.
Please credit: Dr. Michael Striem.
Disclaimer: These reflections on joy, pain, consciousness and evolution were shaped through conversations between human intuition (me) and machine intelligence. ChatGPT and Perplexity served as a companion in organizing thoughts, illuminating connections, and identifying relevant scholarly paths. The vision, meaning, and philosophical direction remain entirely mine (M.S.), while the clarity of expression owes much to this unique and joyful collaboration.
Please help me correct mistakes, which human and machines do.
🌿 Life does not end with its metabolism, it continues through memory, intuition, cooperation, identity, and imagination.
🍇 A vine reaches for sunlight, a wolf reaches for its pack, and a human reaches for beauty, belonging, and truth.
✨ We do not only consume energy, but we also translate it into experience with a profound meaning.
🎨 Wherever life refines interiority, energy becomes more than motion, it becomes learning, emotion, and gratitude.
⭐ Joy lights the pathway toward flourishing while pain teaches the edges of existence.
⚡ Across evolutionary time we learn to walk, to think, to love, to make wine, to write music, to dream, and sometimes to feel awe.
✨ It may be that the destiny of life IS to sing with its whole being, to harmonize matter and meaning, biology and interiority, metabolism and joy.
🌙 We are here mainly to live and survive nature; Furthermore, we are here to feel nature from within.
🍷 Let us raise a glass to that quiet miracle:
energy becoming awareness,
awareness becoming direction,
direction becoming joy.
Joy is not matter, yet it matters most.
🍷 Le’Hayim
To life, to joy, and to the beautiful interiority of living systems.
~~ Michael Striem ~~
