Perception

If I assume something to be true or false, I am judging it without evidence. If I presume something is true or false, I do so based on probability or evidence—it's my educated guess.

There is a certain level of trust involved in presuming that some "thing" is true. I have either experienced it, read it, or watched it on my phone, computer, or tv. Bits of information stream through my senses, exciting a coalition of neurons that travel along various neuronal pathways, carrying signals that allow my conscious self to perceive pain, temperature, fine and crude touch, and my location in space.

Our CNS and PNS

Other sensory pathways enable me to see, hear, smell, taste, and remain upright. I also possess a collection of sensory receptors that, like frames in a movie, create a continuous stream of information: my computer screen, my fingers typing on the keyboard, the light streaming through my window, the taste and smell of coffee, my back end pressed against my chair, and my body in space—all of this stimulus collecting, and receding in response to my surroundings. My evanescent consciousness rippling through my perception of time. What a marvel.

Our Cells

According to current scientific analysis, a 70+ kg adult male has approximately 36 trillion cells. A 60 kg adult female has approximately 28 trillion cells. The number varies based on size, weight, and biological sex.

It is estimated that ~7 trillion of these are nerve cells organized into two anatomical categories: the Central Nervous System (CNS) (brain and spinal cord) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) (nerves throughout the body). The PNS is further subdivided into functional divisions, including the somatic and autonomic systems.

Somatosensory System

At any given moment, a multitude of signals courses along eight pathways regulating our conscious and unconscious selves.

• Dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway: Carries information for fine touch, vibration, and proprioception (body position).

• Spinothalamic pathway: Carries information for pain, temperature, and crude touch.

• Spinocerebellar system: Carries information related to body position and movement from the spinal cord to the cerebellum.

• Auditory pathway: Carries sound from the ear to the brain.

• Visual pathway: Carries visual information from the eyes to the brain.

• Olfactory pathway: Carries smell information from the nose to the brain.

• Gustatory pathway: Carries taste information from the tongue to the brain.

• Interoception: Awareness of your body’s internal senses or signals: how you feel.

To maintain some sense of cognitive "balance," these pathways and our awareness change from moment to moment. If we were to consider these pathways as an 8x1 matrix, there are 40,320 possible permutations.

Autonomic Nervous System

Added to this complexity, Nature endowed us with the Autonomic Nervous System, which is divided into the sympathetic, parasympathetic, and enteric nervous systems. Some classifications also include more specific networks, such as the intrinsic cardiac nervous system. If we were to modify our 8x1 somatic matrix and add the autonomic nervous system to form an 8x3 matrix, the number of possible permutations is exponential, on the order of (24!) Brain Cells

For several decades, 100 billion brain cells was accepted as the standard round estimate. Then, on March 9, 2005, Brazilian neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel's paper, "Isotropic Fractionator: A Simple, Rapid Method for the Quantification of Total Cell and Neuron Numbers in the Brain," was published in the Journal of Neuroscience. This method turned brain tissue into a "brain soup," making it much simpler to count neurons and other brain cells. The result: the more precise average is 86 billion brain cells, with an equal number of glial cells, a combined ~172 billion cells.

Glial cells are "... active participants in brain function, performing several critical roles:

• Insulation (Myelination): Oligodendrocytes in the brain and Schwann cells in the rest of the body produce a fatty substance called myelin that wraps around axons to speed up electrical signals.

• Physical & Metabolic Support: Astrocytes provide structural scaffolding, supply neurons with nutrients like lactate, and regulate the chemical environment by balancing ions and neurotransmitters.

• Immune Defense: Microglia act as the brain's resident immune system, patrolling for pathogens, removing dead cells, and "pruning" unnecessary synaptic connections.

• Fluid Circulation: Ependymal cells line the brain's ventricles and produce cerebrospinal fluid, using hair-like cilia to keep the fluid moving." Queensland Brain Institute

The Citric Acid Cycle a.k.a. The Krebs Cycle

Another truly amazing biological engine that strips away high-energy electrons from the food that you eat to produce ATP, and then uses it to produce the primary energy source for your body. None of this is occurring in isolation. There is an as-yet-not-fully-understood cascade of metabolic events zigzagging between the Krebs Cycle and your gut microbiome, referred to as "mitochondria-microbiome crosstalk." It is believed that this interplay influences our entire physical and mental selves — all of it: the shuttling of our body's chemistry, this symphony, this inconspicuous performance playing out beneath our conscious selves.

Health

Next, let's take a ninety-degree turn from the micro to the macro. Let's talk health.

Viewed as a holistic model, the World Health Organization defines health as the "state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".

Viewed as a biomedical model, a healthy person is someone who exhibits normal vital signs, standard lab values, body metrics, and functional capacity.

Viewed as an adaptive model, health is viewed as a person's ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of daily physical, mental, and social challenges.

Now, let us consider the current state of the US population's physical health.

As of 2026, here are the primary estimates for the percentage of US adults who cannot be categorized as healthy:

Category	% "Not Healthy"	Criteria
Biomedical	~76%	Has at least one diagnosed chronic condition.
Metabolic	~93%	Fails one or more clinical markers (e.g., high BP, sugar).
Lifestyle	~97%	Fails to maintain four key health behaviors.

U.S. vs. Global Mental Health

It is estimated that more than 1 billion people are living with mental health disorders.

Mental Health Metric	U.S. (Avg)	Global (Avg)	Key Distinction
Any Mental Illness (AMI)	23.4%	13% - 15%	The U.S. rate is nearly double the global median.
Anxiety Disorders	19.1%	4% - 5%	The U.S. reports among the highest anxiety rates in the world.
Depression	~18.0%	4% - 5%	U.S. rates for clinical depression are significantly higher than global norms.
Adolescent Distress	~29.0%	14.0%	U.S. teens report poor mental health at twice the global average.
Untreated Population	~48.0%	70% - 90%	The "treatment gap" is lower in the U.S. but remains a major crisis.

If we stop to consider our physical and mental health, our physical environment, the complexity of the human body, our genetics, our social interactions, the pace of technological change, the chaos of world events, and the impact of all of it on the self... I am not convinced that we are in the driver's seat.

We are this amalgam of physical, electrical, and chemical processes, an interpolated quantum soup. Behind the scenes, the strings of our perception are being teased into convincing us that we are the authors of our own reality, that we have agency--that we possess free will.

Hmmmmm, doubtful, I say.

What say you?

Related blogs: Free Will and Rashomon Memory