The various functional systems of a tree – root system, veins, branches, leaves – do not know that they are part of a tree. They are aware only of the nearby elements of the same functional system; they notice qualia that has to do with moving nutrients or water around, or performing photosynthesis.
The elements of a functional system are only aware of their immediate environment, they perceive similar qualia. This is survival. The bigger picture they have is at most an intuitive sense that other parts of the greater whole – other functional systems – are working smoothly, or not. If all the systems are working well, and the tree is healthy, there is a general harmony to existence.
It is no different for the functional system of, say, human vision. The elements of an eye do not know they are part of a human. They do not even know they are part of a vision system. (They know nothing of vision.) They only know that they are all moving around (and surviving because of) familiar qualia. If the vision system is working, the environment is a happy one.
Perhaps there are signs of a bigger picture, beyond the usual landmarks and pathways, hinting at the whole being. Some crossover with the auditory system, for instance, or the neurotransmitters and hormones that come and go in the nearby rivers (pathways) of blood. But none of these systems is aware of their purpose as part of a human organism, any more than that human is aware, beyond the existential level, of his or her true purpose as part of the human landscape.
Complex organisms, like a cat for instance, have many sensual apparati, all focused on a variety of qualia. But they do not seem concerned, any more than a tree, or a branch, or a human eye, with any larger purpose. Humans, on the other hand, are distracted by the cornucopia of qualia they perceive, perhaps the bulk of which is within our minds. Most of our wealth comes from a triangulation between memory and imagination – conceptions instead of perceptions, interpretations of experiences.
Either way, the goal is to reconceive, reinterpret, and then send it out again, requaliafied. We may, at long last, discover purpose as part of a larger organism, a community that stretches beyond our own. Community is, after all, just a bigger picture suggestive of more holistic qualia. We ought to be aware that we are a part of something larger, that the human landscape is not a cancer, but an organ in some aesthetic world or planetary organism, like ecosystems.