Mitochondria Bridge Energy And The Human Experience

Mitochondria do much more than just transform energy to power our cells. They serve as a portal between the small-scale physical-chemical processes that give rise to life, and larger-scale phenomena, like consciousness, that make us human. This video provides insight on the dynamic, social nature of mitochondria and the roles they play in transforming biochemical energy from food into signals, and into the human experience.

Transcript

In many ways, Mitochondria are kind of the portal between the biochemistry, Right, Like the physical stuff of life, And then the immaterial dimension of what it means to be alive. They're social and they can even interact with one another. Like you have two mitochondria and then they start to share information and exchange energy, Exchange information. And then they produce signals that can affect other parts of the cell, Change the way genes are turned on. So the way we've been thinking about mitochondria is they might be this interface, This dynamic, Energetic interface between the physical stuff of life and the immaterial dimension of experience. Science has done a lot to understand the structure of the mitochondria, The cristae and how they move and how they divide. One mito could become two little mitos or it could fuse with another one and then become a longer one. So there's all of these dynamics of mitochondrial life that really is our movement but at microscopic scale. The same movement of energy where new ones are born, Old ones die out, And there's specialization. Every mitochondrion is a little different. The same way that every person is a little different. So mitochondria now is a tool. This concept of mitochondria existing inside the cell is a tool, A scientific object of study that allows us to ground the science of energy. Einstein's E equals mc squared means Energy is mass times the speed of light squared. So mass, Right, Is a form of energy. If you take energy, Which is kind of always transforming, Always has the capacity for transformation, For moving, For flowing, And then you bring energy into stillness, Right? That's what mass is, Right? Like the fabric of a chair, The fabric of, You know, Of a piece of clothing, Of your body, Right? This is energy brought into stillness. Relative stillness. And then when you take mass, The physical object, And then you do nuclear fission, Then you relieve that energy. That's what the nuclear Vong is. It's harnessing the energy that's captured inside matter. So in some way, Mitochondria do something like that. They take the energy that's captured in food, That was captured from the sun, And then dematerialize that, That dematerializes the energy that's trapped, Right? Like brought into stillness, Like trapped into stillness, Into like a piece of food, Into a piece of avocado. And then when you eat this, Then that energy is ripped out, Right? Like electron by electron in the mitochondria, What's called the electron transport chain. And it's as the mitochondria flow that energy, It's bringing the energy from stillness in the food back into movement. And then it's through that movement that life emerges and that the mind emerges. And that you become conscious and that you can feel things. So mitochondria are that dynamic portal between the human experience and the biology of energy.