HillBillyHippie1:
Consciousness at some level in all physial things
I quite agree with Billy's statement, but I disagree with the philosophical logic in the link. The focus of the argument that consciousness resides
in all things at some level requires a framing of the question as to what 'consciousness' actually constitutes? You cannot place something in its
own true context without understanding something pertinent of its nature.
How can we know consciousness? Our only evidence of consciousness is provided by our own individual self-sentience, our own sense of self-awareness,
and that we observe similar behavioural characteristics of a sentient nature in others, and thus agree that they too must possess a conscious
state.
The human body is a highly-organised, highly complex, modular closed system, it is the very reason why it constantly undergoes entropy, and why it has
a finite duration for sustaining itself to animated life. The physical bodies of all life forms are simply self-replicating machines of finite
duration. The form and structure, both externally and internally, have evolved to fit within certain environmental surroundings, whereby it can seek
the material (food) it requires to intake in order to provide and replenish material lost to internal entropy and to continue its self-replication
process through the stages of growth to adulthood and old age. At some point during evolution self-sentience arose as an emergent consequence of the
life form's conscious state. I do not doubt that this stage of evolution was a consequence of extended memory faculty, which was arguably the single
most important evolutionary step for man.
Thus far, I have only alluded to consciousness as a 'state', and indeed, that is all it is. Self-sentience is not consciousness, it is awareness,
and the distinction is very important to understanding consciousness. The conscious state is the condition in which self-sentient awareness functions,
probably through looping feedback processes involving memory. With regards to consciousness, the question to ask is...how do we come into the
conscious state or condition?
I cannot answer this question factually, only hypothetically; nor is there space here to provide a detailed explanation of hypothesis, so a brief
overview must suffice.
Each quantum particle emanates a manifested extended field of 'influence' beyond itself...its wavefield. Kinectic energy waves external to the
particles force them towards each other and bring them into wavefield correspondence (interaction). The sum of each particle's intrinsic energy and
the value of the kinetic energy wave creates a brief resonance energy that lasts only as long as the interaction. I suggest that that brief resonant
energy is the foundation for the conscious state in life forms.
The conscious state on its own cannot imbue self-sentience (self-awareness), other mechanisms are required for that to emerge, and those mechanisms
require the faculty of memory. Thus, the energetic means for the conscious state is already in-situ at the primal level of nature (consciousness at
some level in all physical things), but self-sentience is not. Self-sentience is a product of evolutionary complexity in life forms, whereas the
conscious state is a product of in-situ energy resonance correspondence occurring at the primal level of nature.