Consciousness is a complex topic in psychology, biology, and philosophy. It involves focusing thought on an aspect of existence, and can exist in the subconscious. Physiologically, consciousness is linked to the interaction between layers of the brain. Psychologically, consciousness involves the ability to generalize, experience hypothetical situations, sense time, and have a sense of self. The origin of consciousness is still debated, and questions about whether fetuses and animals are conscious, and whether consciousness can be created in computers, remain.
The question of consciousness is one of the most slippery in modern psychology, biology and philosophy. For many years the word, like the term mind, was avoided whenever possible by practitioners of the hard sciences. In recent years, however, a push has emerged to better explain and understand the process.
Philosophically, at its most basic level, consciousness can be said to be the process of a thinker focusing thought on some aspect of existence. This can be external or internal and can exist in the realm we consider the subconscious (such as dream states). These experiences are collectively known as qualia and are the building blocks of the philosophical discussion surrounding consciousness.
Physiologically, a number of processes have been identified with what we consider consciousness. Specifically, the interface between the layers of the brain is thought to be crucial for conscious activity, and when this interaction is impaired (as in deep sleep), consciousness is thought to be absent.
Psychologically, it’s important to steer consciousness away from its more colloquial use which simply means “awake.” Psychologists would certainly argue that while we are dreaming, for example, we are conscious, even if we are not in a waking state. Conversely, we are unwilling to grant the label conscious to most animals, even if they are able to regulate themselves between waking and sleeping.
In the psychological picture, consciousness is based on some necessary assumptions:
The ability to generalize a small part of an object into a larger object or collection of objects is crucial. Young children and many animals are unable to discern, for example, that a person’s legs and a person’s head belong to the same entity, if some sort of barrier to vision is placed across the midsection. Conscious beings are able to see part of a street and identify it with a whole street, and from there perhaps even with a grid that makes up a town or city.
The ability to experience things in one’s mind before they happen in the real world is another characteristic of consciousness. Creating hypothetical situations based on real-world knowledge and deducing possible outcomes from that knowledge, before trying it out in the real world, is crucial to conscious thinking.
A sense of time is another feature of consciousness. Many drugs and consciousness-altering states target this area first. Time can stretch or contract or act in strange ways. Basically, however, a conscious being is able to put things in a free temporal order and think about an abstract future.
Sense of self is the last major characteristic. Being able to see the world through one’s eyes and recognizing that oneself is the player looking at the world. The classic test used for consciousness in animals (although it no longer had much credibility) was to hold a mirror in front of the subject, place something on their body outside their field of vision (such as paint on the top of their head), and see if they attempted to remove the paint in front of their own reflection. Some think this indicates that the subject has a clear sense of self that they recognize even in an abstract form. The sense of self also emerges as an internal narrative, often unnoticed by the conscious being, cataloging all events as they occur.
Many animals over the years have been credited with consciousness by various groups and there is no clear answer one way or another. For many years, language has been considered a valid test, but it does not include non-communicative beings that are considered fully aware anyway (such as wild humans). Various tests for consciousness reach different conclusions for animals. The mirror test, for example, finds that all great apes (except gorillas), dolphins, and humans older than 18 months are conscious.
The origin of consciousness is another area of great discussion. Some argue that it is simply a computer-like algorithmic process that takes place locally in the physical structure of the brain. Others suggest that it is a quantum mechanical phenomenon, which is not local. Still others argue that this is an emergent property of brain complexity and that there is an explanatory gap that cannot be filled.
As our understanding of consciousness increases, so does our confusion. The questions of whether fetuses and animals are conscious, where it comes from, and whether we can create it in computer form will all be big breakthroughs in the years to come.
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