Gut vs Brain

Perhaps a radical view, but things other than out brain do think for us, should we use them as models for intelligence as well?

Questioning the Cranial Paradigm
A Talk By Caroline A. Jones [6.19.19]

Part of the definition of intelligence is always this representation model. . . . I’m pushing this idea of distribution—homeostatic surfing on worldly engagements that the body is always not only a part of but enabled by and symbiotic on. Also, the idea of adaptation as not necessarily defined by the consciousness that we like to fetishize. Are there other forms of consciousness? Here’s where the gut-brain axis comes in. Are there forms that we describe as visceral gut feelings that are a form of human consciousness that we’re getting through this immune brain?

Questioning the Cranial Paradigm:

Caroline Jones: I want us to think about the gut-brain axis and the powerful analog system of our immune brain, also thought of as a mobile brain. The cranial paradigm is what I’m here to question and offer you questions about. Mainframe is a kind of discourse that haunts the field that we’re talking about, and the cranium comes with that metaphor that we all live by.

What do we mean when we say the word "intelligence"? The immune system is the fascinating, distributed, mobile, circulating system that learns and teaches at the level of the cell. It has memory, some of which lasts our entire life, some of which has to be refreshed every twenty years, every twelve years, a booster shot every six years. This is a very fascinating component of our body’s intelligence that, as far as we know, is not conscious, but even that has to be questioned and studied. .... "