In both cases [i.e., "the minimal form [...] closure takes for life at the single-cell level, and [...] the minimal form it takes for the nervous system"] we see the co-emergence of inside and outside, of selfhood and a correlative world or environment of otherness, through the generic mechanism of network closure (autonomy) and its physical embodiment [...].

[...] The animate form of our living body is thus the place of intersection for numerous emergent patterns of selfhood and coupling. Whether cellular, somatic, sensorimotor, or neurocognitive, these patterns derive not from any homuncular self or agent inside the system organizing it or directing it, but from distributed networks with operational closure. In Varela's image, our organism is a meshwork of "selfless selves," and we are and live this meshwork [...].

-- Evan Thompson, from Mind in Life, p. 49, emphasis mine

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