the mind and homeostasis

Damasio is making the case that the mind has evolved to further aid in the process of maintaining homeostasis within an organism. Simple organisms that have only a biological system (without a mind), are only able to maintain homeostasis in very simple and direct ways; but with the evolution of mind, an organism can apply creativity and reason to establish harmony through more complex means. An example is of an organism suffering from a lack of nourishment; automatic homeostatic processes are set in motion in order to try and regain a state of optimal nourishment and functioning. In a simple organism this process would be automatic and fixed, carried out according to innate homeostatic mechanisms. In a more complex organism this process would lead to a body map, feelings of hunger and the perception/awareness of that hunger. When evolution reaches the point at which the organism is able to perceive the feeling of being hungry and generate thoughts based on the perception of that feeling, a broad new range of creative options become available to the organism which can then be applied to solve the problem and return itself to a state of equilibrium and well-being.