Is the universe one big brain?

QUESTION I recall a debate in which a scientist argued that the universe was a conscious entity. How might it be?

This idea is wrapped up in the ancient philosophy of panpsychism, the view that consciousness, mind or soul (psyche) is a universal feature of all things. Panpsychism was part of stoicism, Taoism, and Buddhism.

it is possible to compare the interconnectivity of the human brain with that of the universe. The brain has 100 billion (10¹¹) neurones with at least 100 trillion (10¹ 4) neural connections, each neurone firing roughly 200 times per second.

For the universe, the galaxies are our small representative volumes, and there are something like 10¹¹ to 10¹² stars in our galaxy, and 10¹ 4 in the largest galaxy, and perhaps something like 10¹¹ to 10¹² galaxies in the universe.

so the numbers for a brain and a large, fully- formed galaxy are comparable.

Panpsychists hold that a universal consciousness emerges from billions of interplanetary interactions, just as the brain emerges from the organisation of billions of subatomic particles. But there is a fundamental structural difference, in that neurones within a brain have a defined structure, while stars rapidly move closer and farther from one another under the influence of all the other masses within a galaxy. Henry Adams, Birmingham.

QUESTION Which battles best illustrate a pyrrhic victory?

FURTHER to the earlier answer, the ultimate pyrrhic victory was the Battle of Borodino in 1812. Napoleon hoped to end the disastrous russia campaign by seizing Moscow, to force the russians to peace.

Napoleon won, but his army suffered — 30-35,000 killed or wounded and many of his best officers died.

entering Moscow he found it abandoned. he was forced into a ruinous retreat that destroyed his Grande Armée and career.