Consciousness; an article touting universal consciousness (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, 13:08 (2347 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID’s comment: This wild theory thinks we are all associated to a universal consciousness and dissociated at the same time! But it mirrors some of my thinking.

dhw: I think all of us would agree that there is no satisfactory explanation of consciousness, and every attempt comes up with its own problems. However, even if we can’t explain it, we have lots of examples in the world of insects and microorganisms that show how fragmented (i.e. individual) consciousnesses DO combine to create higher levels of intelligence. My favourite example, of course, is ants, which create cities and lifestyles of enormous complexity entailing the combination of multiple skills. If we accept that even single-celled organisms are intelligent, there is no way we can know for sure that they are NOT capable of combining and producing levels of intelligence/consciousness that extend to that of high-level subjectivity. I find this theory considerably less “wild” than the one presented here.

DAVID: You continue to expand the meaning of a very precise term 'consciousness'. It always means self-awareness. You do that to support your idea that true intelligence is everywhere from single cells to non-human animals. A neat ploy.

Consciousness is the state of being conscious, and for some reason you refuse to accept that there are degrees of it. In humans it includes self-awareness, but even in your own post under "THEORY" you talk of animals being “consciously purposeful”. Do you believe your dog is conscious of your presence, of walkies time, of the doggy food on the plate, of ways to make you aware he wants to walk or eat? I suggest the answer is yes. Do you believe your dog wonders why it exists? I suggest the answer is no. But I am more than happy to distinguish between awareness and self-awareness if you prefer. There is no neat ploy, and it is irrelevant to my proposal. According to some scientists (it is not just my idea – see under “Horizontal gene transfer”), there are degrees of awareness, ranging from that of bacteria to that of humans, and they couple this with degrees of intelligence. Time and again we read about the cooperation between cells and cell communities at all levels. This is not an “idea”; it is a fact, both inside and outside our bodies. I have expanded this fact into the idea that cooperation between the intelligent cell communities of the brain may be the source of our own higher intelligence or self-awareness. But of course I do not pretend that the idea explains how cells became aware/intelligent in the first place, and your God is one of the three options I have suggested.