From James Whalley, Hinchinbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Eric Kvaalen says that if consciousness arises out of brains, we should stop experiments on lab-grown organoids. But several lines of research have suggested that consciousness isn’t a property just of brains, but of whole organisms reacting with their environment. In this view, a sufficiently complex brain is necessary, but not sufficient, for consciousness to arise, and if that is so, we need have no worries about even much larger lab-grown brains that need constant supervision to stay alive (Letters, 24 June).
