Caenorhabditis elegans is a roundworm about 1 millimeter in length, consisting of 959 somatic cells in the hermaphrodite (which either self-fertilizes or functions as a female) and 1,031 cells in the male. It has a mouth, an intestine, an excretory organ, muscles for movement, and a nervous system of 302 neurons. Males produce sperm, and hermaphrodites have a vulva and produce eggs. If males are present, fertilization occurs through copulation, a process that goes through encoded, coordinated stages which, when studied in detail, appear complicated for such a simple organism.
The most amazing thing about all of this is not that it happens, but why it happens. It happens because of a nervous system of just 302 neurons that controls the life of this worm. These 302 neurons and their connectome of approximately 7,000 synapses provide, first and foremost, motivation: motivation to avoid annihilation, motivation to seek nutrition, and, most astonishingly, sexual motivation.
Do you see the parallels? These are exactly the same motivations that govern human life.
We are simply made of more cells, and therefore we are more complex. But the basic motivations are the same.
Even the parallels of hormonal control are striking. It is all there in C. elegans: steroid hormones, related nuclear receptors, and neuropeptides homologous to the mammalian oxytocin and vasopressin family, which in humans are known as the hormones of love and bonding.
It is obvious: our deepest self already exists in that accumulation of just 302 neurons and their hormonal biochemistry. And everything else that we humans are is just adaptive accessories and functional garnish.
