Consciousness

Consciousness is the part of us that is aware of other things. But what does it mean to be aware of something?
This is what I like to call an overlap of information. Think of an object like a tree, out there, in the universe. This tree is made up of atoms and molecules. These atoms and molecules are arranged in a formation that create a tree. Now imagine someone drew a picture of that tree on a piece of paper. Now some of the information that exists in the actual tree is repeated on the paper. The atoms and molecules on the paper are arranged in such a way to represent some other atoms and molecules in the tree. If you look at it from the perspective of the universe some pattern is repeated twice. This is what I call an overlap of information . This happens all the time around us. Our pursuit of knowledge is the same thing. We are trying to make our brains represent the real universe in a limited way.

When we are aware of something that means that the elements that make up our consciousness rearrange themselves in such a way that represents the thing we are being aware of. You can think of consciousness as a piece of paper and the graphene molecules (from the pencil) on it. Every time we become aware of something the graphene molecules arrange themselves into a copy of what we are observing.

But that is not the same as existence. I would still exist even if I weren't conscious. And I would be conscious even if I didn't have this body. But what are we at the deepest level? Are we just the universe itself? That would make sense but the question still remains. The only explanation that I can think of is that there is only one thing that exists. And that's us. As I write this a part of me is confused but there is also a part of me that is not confused. It seems like it knows what's going on. Perhaps by paying attention to the part that is not confused the rest of my body and nervous system can begin to understand.

In the analogy of drawing, perhaps the piece of paper represents our existence. The graphene molecules represent our consciousness. Our brain is just a memory and our body is a structure that supports this memory. Our whole life is about keeping this structure alive for a little bit longer until we understand what we are.

Original post at : http://www.soknowledgeable.com/2018/11/consciousness.html