buffy said:

I found this piece in SciAm interesting.

Brains are not required when it comes to thinking

Hold on. I posted “brains-are-not-required-when-it-comes-to-thinking” in my list of unpopular beliefs just a fortnight or so ago!
Does that mean it’s not unpopular after all?

I was thinking of the Venus flytrap. The neurological process involved in deciding when to close the leaves is quite complicated, but the venus flytrap doesn’t have anything remotely resembling a brain or even nerve cells.

And I was also thinking about how reflexes work. Actions and decisions are made without involving the brain at all. Ditto decisions made by tube worms and coral polyps.

And I was also thinking of primitive fish like the lancelet, where it has a notochord that contains nerves but nothing resembling a brain.