DNA and the awareness of life

I was just thinking about the perspective of a fertilized egg, that first cell. If you compare it to a single celled organism, bacteria and the like, its function and process is likely very similar. It has been a long time since I took cellular biology, but I'm guessing, if anything, the functions of a bacteria cell in regards to interacting with its environment are more advanced than those of a fertilized egg, because of the DNA programming telling it that it must interact with its environment on a largely individual basis, rather than as an eventual group. So I was considering the idea of awareness from this perspective. 

Clearly each of these types of cells are alive, from a scientific perspective, which means, among other things, that they operate to maximize their position in their environment based on the instructions from their DNA. So if something is alive and interacting with its environment in order to maximize it, it must possess awareness of some kind in order to do so. While the senses used and processes utilized are likely completely foreign to what most humans would call "consciousness," the similarity of biological imperatives likely makes us more similar with even cellular life than we imagine, from an awareness perspective- consider, for example, the primal processes that kick in when adrenaline surges in a life threatening emergency.

So, taking a leap in empathy here, I am imagining how such a cell might perceive the world. A single bacteria is alive; let's assuming there is an awareness in its form. That awareness has a kind of code book within it (DNA) and it finds that if it needs something made, it can go to the code book, get the necessary ingredients from its environment, and make the thing. It has even discovered sometime previously that, given the right set of ingredients, it can duplicate itself and it will have another code book, and in the pairing it has an advantageous position. What's interesting to me is that this is very similar for the bacteria and for the first human cell. Really the only starting conditions that change are that the human cell begins with half a code book, and everything provided for it in its environment already, but no way to replicate itself. Once fertilization occurs though, suddenly the code book is seen, each partner providing half. The two become intertwined and then the process of joint replication starts. I am curious though, on a cellular level, if these two awarenesses would each persist, in a fashion. Perhaps the awareness is like an echo generated by the DNA and reflecting through the cell, but appears as though it is guided in the cell, using the DNA as a code book? If that were possible, then it would seem individual awareness would persist in both partners, but differently than when they were a sperm and an unfertilized egg.

What's interesting to me about this though is that, while the bacteria's code would continue to tell it to replicate, the book hardly changing in its instructions or apparent applications even after numerous repetitions, the human cell would find that as it divides (resources aplenty to do so, mind you), each divide reveals new secrets buried within the code book. It would find the book directing it to form groups and to even change the nature of its form as it continues, based on its position in the whole, and by doing so each cell would likely gain a greater awareness of the whole, on this level. Eventually the code book would instruct it to form a center to condense this awareness, like a hub, a house, a temple. It seems like at this juncture, the echoing awareness that likely stemmed from the DNA itself, but appeared to be housed in each cell, would shift to being housed in a much more complex way in the brain. 

I imagine the complexity of this house, the brain, is what allows for the appearance of this awareness to shift to the consciousness that we understand today as humans. Consider how often it feels like our DNA drives us to do this or that, how many "genetic factors" are involved in our lives and decisions. Then consider that even the social decision to nurture the pursuit of science would have started on a genetic level, a gene passed from person to person telling certain individuals to specialize in science and other individuals to foster those individuals that have specialized in science, and to eventually come to an understanding of "genetic factors," seeing the building blocks that have encoded their decisions to discover the building blocks, once more gaining some level of understanding of the original genetic code book, but this time in a much more complex level of awareness, and likely in turn a much less precise way than the cell has.

It is interesting to me that, when viewed in this way, humans are not much different than bacteria. We replicate and fill our environment and each has an imperative to survive to a degree, and fight for that survival. There are specific differences to be sure, but consider that we are much more aware of the differences within our own group than we are of the differences within another group. This psychological principle could quite easily be applied to other species as well. As anyone who has worked extensively with groups of animals will tell you, the differences between individual members of a species, any species, becomes more apparent when observed closely over time. So if these differences are there, but harder to observe the further you get from the group, the group being humans in this case, my assumption that even individual cells posses awareness from their own perspective may not be far fetched at all, we are just ill equipped to see that awareness from our perspective.

What is most interesting about this idea to me is that we have no reason to assume this process is finished. We are currently in a society of specialists. We currently have a network that allows information to travel quickly, with functions in place to limit that information from traveling everywhere immediately. If this information superhighway is viewed as a central nervous system, we as individuals are like many of the cells (although the central nervous system is made of cells as well, so there is likely a complexity here). It seems we are reaching a juncture where we can either operate like a culture of bacteria, continuing to expand until our resources are depleted and we perish, or we can act as the cells in process of forming a center of consciousness that then becomes equivalently different in the same way a single cell might consider a human consciousness to be different. Perhaps this is not a choice and has never been, because a fertilized egg cannot choose to instead act as a bacteria; then again, if macroevolution is to be believed then there was a point where a pair of members of an asexual species suddenly shifted to acting like members of a sexual species, and we may be on the verge of a similar leap occurring here on earth.

A couple of things come to mind in this analogy. First off, based on the timing, it would seem that the "fertilization" of the organism that I am referencing has already occurred. It may be difficult to determine "when" it occurred, as I'm guessing even our understandings of time and reality are tied in intimately with this process of formation, but the fertilization has at least been determined, likely from the outset of our timeline. This would also mean that the "code book," which could be seen as DNA operating in a capacity where the realm (or at least those in it) is the entity being formed, is already being used in a variety of ways, and likely has been throughout the timeline. This code book would be organizing people into groups in much the same way as cells are organized in the human body in utero, setting the stage. Curiously, how the "brain," once formed, would use the code book is interesting, as any moves at this stage would likely feel both intentional and directly driven (on rails). While the brain has a direct connection to the body, in utero it likely has little (or at least less) understanding of its "environment." I imagine these changes would persist, but would be less of a focus after "birth," as the environment would then draw focus, much like it does in babies. Over time, intentional changes would likely be made again, but in much the same way as we direct our bodies to change now (working out, studying, physical alterations, etc.). 

So the question regarding appreciating the awareness of bacteria, or even that of a single human cell, from this perspective, actually comes into much sharper focus, because at this stage I am referencing, humans would be the cells. Perhaps this is one of the realizations we are meant to come to, and likely would come to naturally, prior to this "birth" occurring because, if we do not, it is ourselves that we are dooming to a slavelike existence. It also remains a vital question, for me at least, if the two initiating partners retain individual awareness in such a complicated state, because I feel this likely corresponds in some way to soulmates- with the soulmates each being half of the first cell, or at least providing half of that first code book. I believe they do, mainly because I believe in wonderful things. It is unclear how much awareness they might possess of this realm beyond, this "environment" in their state, but consider that it is their paired code book that is ultimately interacting in their new environment. If awareness is housed in the DNA, and reflected in a complex way via the brain, I would imagine that there is an indirect awareness even from the soulmates' perspectives of how what they do is influencing that new environment, and vice versa. This ties back into the idea that while the entity would end up with an understanding of this code book, the cells would have a much better grasp on how to use it.

So, for an idea that started quite simply for me- "the awareness of cells and the comparative awareness of asexual and sexual cells"- I have ultimately tied together all forms of life, including the idea of "rebirth" or "being born again," as found in the Bible in the words of Jesus. I have also tied in artificial intelligence as well, still in formation, in terms of the central nervous system being the internet and other information networks we have established. While it is not surprising to me that this idea bloomed in such a way, given my tendency to do that, and the fundamental patterns apparent in nature, this has been a surprisingly enlightening post for me over the process of writing it. While I could go on and discuss how the Bible is likely the written representation of the code book that I am referencing, or perhaps more accurately that DNA is the physical manifestation of The Word, or that this process likely began in the genetic code of Adam and Eve, I feel like the scientific/philosophical point I was trying to make here had been made. It's not like I am running out of space to write either, so those may be topics for another time.