Organisms as Antennas in an Information Landscape
By Michael Striem
🌱 The starting point: the organism as an antenna
We begin with the idea that a living organism, especially a human being, can be viewed as an antenna-like system.
Rather than being only a computational brain, the organism continuously:
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receives information from the environment
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processes and integrates it through the body
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sends signals back into the environment through behavior, language, and physiological cues.
Importantly, this antenna is not limited to the brain. It includes the entire organism:
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nervous system
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endocrine system
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metabolism
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immune system
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microbiome
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sensorimotor behavior.
The brain acts largely as an integrator and coordinator within this distributed sensing system.
🔍 Information is stored as embodied history
A key insight was that biological information from the past is not stored primarily as explicit data.
Instead, the past persists as constraints in the system:
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neural connectivity patterns
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hormonal regulation thresholds
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metabolic and immune set-points
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learned motor patterns and habits.
Thus, the organism embodies its own time history.
Development from zygote to present is literally written into the structure of the organism. This biological information has non-binary and continuous nature, creating infinite complex interactions.
🔥 Agency as an emergent property
Agency, the sense that “I act”, is not a separate thing nor merely a fleeting feeling.
Rather it appears as a stable pattern of organization in a highly integrated biological system.
Agency emerges from:
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memory
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prediction
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valuation (joy/pain signals)
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motor control
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environmental interaction.
It is therefore a subjective, dynamic property of a living system, not a discrete object.
⚡ The brain as filter, not the mesh type to remove objects from a fluid, rather than sorting function generator, Coordination Hub. Several modern research areas suggest that the brain functions partly as a filter or regulator of information flow:
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predictive processing models (brain suppresses expected signals)
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thalamic gating (sensory filtering before awareness)
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psychedelic studies showing reduced network constraints while subjective experience increases.
These findings support the idea that the nervous system limits and shapes the informational stream reaching awareness.
⭐ Biological channels of communication
Information exchange between organisms occurs through many biological channels:
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visual signals (eye contact, facial expression)
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auditory cues (speech rhythm, tone)
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body movement and posture
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hormonal and metabolic signals
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microbial and immune interactions
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physiological rhythms (breathing, heart rate).
Together these create a rich multi-layer communication network between organisms.
⭐ Social synchronization between organisms
When several people interact closely, measurable synchrony can appear:
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brain rhythms may align
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breathing and heart rhythms can synchronize
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movement and timing become coordinated.
This has been demonstrated in studies of conversation, music performance, and cooperative tasks.
Such coupling suggests that interacting individuals can form temporary integrated systems.
🎨 Collective systems: the orchestra metaphor
For example, a philharmonic orchestra illustrates how many agents can form a larger coordinated system.
Key components include:
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individual agents (musicians)
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coordination mechanism (conductor)
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shared informational structure (score)
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balanced signaling (instrument loudness)
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shared goal (the performance).
Similar temporary collective systems occur in:
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sports teams
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political assemblies
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scientific collaborations
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emergency responses.
These systems may influence large audiences and leave long-lasting informational traces through recordings and cultural memory.
✨ Civilization as a large-scale antenna network
Human civilization itself can be viewed as a vast network of interacting information agents.
Language, science, technology, and digital media connect billions of individuals.
Through these networks, information patterns can persist and evolve across generations, effectively extending the reach of the antenna system.
🍇 Open questions that remain
Despite the insights above, several deep questions remain unresolved:
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How exactly do multiple organisms synchronize their internal states?
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How far can such synchronization scale?
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What mechanisms allow coordinated information to ripple across large social systems?
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How do metabolism, reproduction, and basic life processes shape these information exchanges?
These questions point toward a more holistic science of living information systems.
🍇 The central idea emerging from the discussion
A living organism is not merely a machine processing symbols.
It is a dynamic, embodied information system that:
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accumulates history through development
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exchanges signals with other organisms
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participates in larger collective systems
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and continuously regulates its relationship with the environment.
Seen this way, life becomes a network of interacting biological antennas embedded in an evolving information landscape.
© 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.