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What Makes You "You" When Everything Is Just Atoms?
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What is consciousness, really? Why does it not simply switch on at a single moment? Neuroscientist Niko Kukushkin explains how even single cells can show primitive forms of memory and agency, why the human mind is not a mysterious force floating above biology, and why reducing it to "just neurons" misses what actually matters. He also discusses the evolutionary gamble of complexity, why bacteria still dominate the planet, and how abstraction and memory together give rise to thought. At the center of the conversation is an unsettling question: Why does it feel so special to be you when science says that you are nothing but a chemical reaction—a collection of atoms and molecules, like rocks,…