The Philosophy of Consciousness
Consciousness, in its most basic form, is awareness or sentience of both internal and external nature. Despite millennia of studies, theories, interpretations and arguments by many philosophers and scientists, consciousness still remains controversial and seemingly mysterious, being simultaneously the most familiar and least mysterious aspect of our existences. In this article, we will attempt to bridge the gap and explain what consciousness is. Consciousness is a faculty of the brain, it is the inner knowing and awareness that is the matrix of all mental activity, and it is the first level of human ability to perceive the world around us.
The most widely accepted account of consciousness is the integrated information theory of consciousness. The integrated information theory postulates that consciousness is the product of an organism's physical structure. According to this theory, an organism is organized into neurons and synapses which give rise to the differentively organized consciousness of an individual organism. Neurons and synapses are thought to play key roles in both cognitive and non-cognitive awareness, although they remain largely invisible in the workings of the majority of the human brain.
Because the physical structure of the human brain does not support the operations of higher-order or quality awareness, the gaps between human consciousness and the higher order of consciousness created by the brain's functions are filled by consciousness. Human consciousness has developed an impressive complexity over time, and the complexity of consciousness has been greatly increased by evolutionary processes. Over recent centuries, many theories of how to understand consciousness have been developed and promoted. Many of these theories postulate that consciousness evolved through evolution due to the accumulation and integration of small "family units" of psychological and physical attributes, each contributing to the larger structure of a human's psyche. The emerging science of psychology attempts to provide a systematic explanation for the emergence of consciousness from a complex environment.
A number of competing models are currently under development in the field of psychology. Each of these models offers a unique explanation of how consciousness came about. In most cases, it is believed that consciousness emerged as a function of evolution through natural selection, and that biological brains gave way to more complex forms of mind and behavior. Additionally, the brain became capable of storing and recalling both consciously and unconscious memories in order to support human consciousness. Finally, the brain became capable of remembering and manipulating behavior, both consciously and unconsciously, in order to support the behavior patterns that have resulted in a human's life.
One emerging model of how consciousness emerged from the brain is the so-called global workspace theory. This model maintains that human consciousness emerges as a global workspace where multiple possible states of mind or behavior can exist simultaneously. It is based on the fact that human beings have lived for millions of years with the help of unconscious mental states that often serve as a defense against the more threatening conscious states that threaten their survival. Through the development of this global workspace, humans have been able to communicate and interact with each other across physical and geographical barriers. The global workspace has also enabled the evolution of culture, which has been shaped by the social practices that have emerged from this highly integrated information environment.
The global workspace theory suggests that the conscious mind is responsible for communication across boundaries, although it is not possible to say that any one thought or set of thoughts constitutes the conscious mind. A competing view on the matter is known as the integrated information theory. According to this theory, the human brain acts like an information-spider that continuously captures and transmits information from its various sensory inputs, which in turn generates a number of different interpretations or predictions. An example of an information-spider in action is the human brain, which seems to contain billions of cells that respond to different stimuli and activities in real time.
A number of experiments that support the global workspace theory have been conducted using animals. In these studies, it was found that birds can respond to the presence of a stimulus that either contains or does not contain a stimulus from another animal or location. Similarly, it was found that humans can follow the path of a robot by following a recorded series of instructions laid down on a tablet. These experiments suggest that the brain is capable of functioning in a complex manner, even when the number of neurons it contains is relatively lower than what is required to function in a typical human case.
A more recent experiment performed by neuroscientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich) suggests that consciousness is not a simple phenomenon, but exists in a complexity comparable to the natural world. In this study, the scientists successfully teleported a computer program into a patient's brain, where it remained unaware of what was happening to it. This research clearly indicates that consciousness exists in living organisms, and not just in objects and space-time vacuum.
