Consciousness

Science has brought us many new discoveries, theories, laws, equations, and so much more. With science, we have gained a further understanding of our world and beyond. We know the behavior of large celestial objects, and we can predict the motion of small subatomic particles. Yet, one part of our daily lives, one that is so profound on our lives, and perhaps the most important part of our existence is yet to be studied and examined carefully. The only reason why we can know what we are, and we can see colors, or feel anything, consciousness.

The problem of consciousness is an interesting one, it is the most fundamental part of human life, yet the most undiscovered, and perhaps the most ignored. Consciousness, by definition is the state of awareness of the existence of the self. Consciousness is what enables us to feel, to know our existence and also others. It is when we can feel our own existence. Consciusness is not just a “state” though, as if it is, then any object that displays common characteristics of being “conscious” can be considered to have consciousness. Instead, it is the very essence of the “self” and what makes the “self” what it is. It is the source of individuality and identity, for without consciousness, all there is are philosophical zombies. Defining it specifically with random and abstract concepts is useless though, we must revert to the real life, and draw a line.

Humans are the first creatures that come into mind when the problem of consciousness is posited. Let us compare humans and other lifeforms, are animals conscious? If so, how do we determine it? This is the primary reason to the lack of study on consciousness. What is the criteria for consciousness? To be fair, let’s limit it to being aware of oneself, awareness of existence. How do you know if one is aware of their existence? For animals that communicate in a language that we humans are unable to understand, that is virtually impossible to know. We can only observe their behaviors and their brain. Sometimes, emotions are also indication of consciousness, and some animals do express emotions, or seem to. While animals have been considered unconscious for most of history, how do we know that they aren’t? This problem is also applicable to other humans.

Most would agree that humans are conscious beings and they have consciousness. If we follow the previous criteria, it seems apparent that humans are conscious. They can communicate that they exist, and they can claim their awareness, so for most part, they’re conscious. Furthermore, they can feel emotions, and express it. So, perhaps that’s the final answer, that consciousness is merely defined by awareness of the self, and emotions to an extent. Yet, we’re not done yet. If this idea of consciousness is true, then atheism should be perfectly fine and perhaps more widespread, but it isn’t. So what’s wrong here? Enter the world of computers and artificial intelligence.

If this essay was written back in the ancient Greek, it would’ve been done on the previous paragraph. Because we couldn’t have imagined that we can create intricate artificial systems, that can mimic our behaviors so precisely, that we can not differentiate them from our own kind. Yet we’ve done it, the era of artificial intelligence has dawned upon us, and some forms of artificial intelligence are actually already somewhat indistinguishable from human intelligence. This is when the distinction between intelligence and consciousness arises. Perhaps a computer will be able to think and communicate like a human being and outperform it, but surely it will never be able to be aware of its existence or feel anything. Actually, it will, if we do not refine the definitions of “awareness” and “feeling”.

So far, we have only thought that humans are aware and can feel because they claim so. However, is it not possible for us to create an artificial intelligence that can deduce its own existence? And so, it gains the knowledge of existence, but is that awareness? What is awareness in essence? Is it the knowledge of something? Or the acknowledgement of such knowledge? If that is, then computers certainly can be aware of it, or is theoretically possible. We have created computers that can learn and evolve, certainly we can create computers that can deduce its own existence. Feeling, let’s say a human cries, we say that human feels emotions, but how do we know?

The distinction between expression and consciousness is now important. As a computer can be programmed in such a way, that if certain stimuli that perhaps cause sadness is given, it will react and express sadness. However, we as the creators of the computer know that the emotion is fake and is merely a product of long logical instructions known as computer programming code. How are we to say that humans are different? For all we know, every single human can be a biological computer, that says they possess consciousness because they are programmed by neurons in their brains, and smiles at cute dogs because they are designed to react that way by their genetic coding. Is that the true answer? That no being is conscious, but there must be one being, right?

We have hit a dead end, at this point, the existence and consciousness of all beings are at stake. Few people actually thinks about this kind of existential matter, as if you trace it far enough, you’ll find a dark end, commonly known as solipsism. Solipsism is the idea that only I exist, and everything else is just a product of my mind. That makes sense, as I can feel and I am certain of it, but I don’t know about others, how do I know if they exist? Do note that “I” here does not refer to the author personally, but to Solipsists generally, as the author does not believe in solipsism. Essentially, only one consciousness exists, and all others are just imaginations of that same consciousness. This idea, while seemingly unassailable from an ideal standpoint, and only assailable from a pragmatic standpoint, is actually flawed.

While it is true that “I” exist, as “I” can feel and be aware and be absolutely certain of it, and it’s the only consciousness that can be proven to exist, the likelihood of other things to exist is actually very high. Let me illustrate, according to solipsism, everything is just an imagination of the exact same consciousness. So, why are we still bounded by very hard physical laws? Why can’t we just fly around and cause mayhem? Why can’t we overrule everything and be the Gods of existence? In fact, according to solipsism, we are God, so what is the limit? That’s the point, the fact that we are still limited by other creatures and by the universe itself is sure sign that solipsism is false.

So, what now? We have not even approached the true answer of consciousness, we have merely ran around in circles, discovering more things, but not the true answer. Let’s return back to the problem of consciousness and science. The fact that very many people disregard consciousness itself, this has gave rise to some interesting ideologies. It is important to understand that humans, so far are the only forms of intelligence to ever make the deduction that a non physical world exists and there is a being that is unbounded by any laws and is the supreme ruler of all. Some of them, are beginning to refute such natural ideas and develop what seems to be the intellectual position. That is atheism, the belief in no God, and materialism, the belief that only the material world and the physical laws exist. One question, how do you explain consciousness?

Many atheists and materialists simply explain it as the result of the chemical reactions of the brain. Let me remind you again, that is intelligence, not consciousness. Let’s be generous here, if their saying is actually true, then wouldn’t it be safe to consider that consciousness was evolved? The problem is, how was it evolved? And what genes are responsible for such trait? What was the first animal to be conscious? Additionally, consciousness can not be happening over generations, it’s not a trait that has multiple values, it’s a trait with one value: conscious or not. So, the mutation responsible for consciousness must have happened at a single generation. What species is that? What animal was it? If you try to argue about language and emotion, that is again, intelligence and not consciousness. Life may be able to be described in pure physical equations, but the same can not be said for consciousness.

That argument, is the true mortal defeat of atheism, or at least materialism. If consciousness can not be described by physical equations, then it is certainly independent of the physical world. And thus, consciousness is the evidence that there is something beyond physical laws and the material world. What does it mean then? We still haven’t went anywhere. It’s time to return to the idea of solipsism. The idea seems sensible, but we know it can’t be. It can’t be sensible at all. However, part of it does make sense, the idea that there is only one consciousness in existence. That idea is good, but it needs to be refined.

It is true that there is only one consciousness certain to exist, you can not prove more than one to exist, as that would cause the problem of artificial intelligence. However so, that does not mean that only the consciousness exists, and the world is merely a product of imagination, as we have no grounds to say that. This means that while there is still only one consciousness, the entire world still exists, does that mean all other humans are philosophical zombies? Of course not, that assumes that we only have one life, and this is the only life we have. That idea is inherently fallacious though, to be conscious means to experience and to feel. If say, we die and our consciousness is obliterated, it’s impossible. As there would be noone to experience oblivion or nothingness if there is nothing. If we can experience nothingness, then our consciousness is preserved. So even if an infinite stretch of time exists after we die, it makes no sense to us, as we’re not there to experience it. The most likely hypothesis is for us to be reincarnating into someone else, over and over again for an infinitely many number of times. And what law says that we have to travel in time linearly in reincarnation, it doesn’t have to be, we can simply reincarnate into another person in our previous lifetime. Which concludes that we are all just different iterations of the same consciousness. And that’s the closest answer we can get towards consciousness, as more than that and we’ll be discussing God, which is not the topic here. That is the topic of another essay, but this is it, consciousness is what it is.