A single cell slime mold makes decisions without a central nervous system
Pour water into a maze (or create a potential difference across a conductor) and you'll see that as new current flows in, it doesnt explore every pathway but takes the correct path through.<p>This intelligent behavior arises from the simple compulsions things to reach equal potential.<p>The slime mold experiments are  cool because they connect simple compulsions with emergent intelligent behavior in an organism. I have wondered if it's the same for us, if conciousness is really just the sum of all our simple compulsions, arising from basic rules - like is water "conscious" of wanting to seek it's own level, ions conscious of wanting to react, etc, and together that makes up what human conciousness is?