See also [ edit ]
by Admin
Posted on 22-08-2022 09:57 AM
Is
consciousness
uniquely human? or do other living things have varying degrees of it? (image credit: shutterstock)
humans once assumed our planet was the physical center of the solar system , so it's no surprise that we also think highly of consciousness, the apparently unique quality that allows our species to contemplate such matters. But what is consciousness? the topic has been extraordinarily controversial in the scientific and philosophical traditions.
Thinkers have spent an immense amount of time and ink trying to unravel mysteries, such as how consciousness works and where it resides. The short answer isn't very satisfying. Scientists and philosophers still can't agree on a vague idea of what consciousness is, much less a strict definition.
Interestingly, the expanded awareness induced by the psychedelics such as lsd appears to resemble natural altered states. Artists, for example may experience expanded aesthetic awareness. Mozart, it has been reported, would receive the sense of a musical composition all at once. He would then dictate the music to his wife while engaged in some other activity, such as reading a newspaper. Mystical states may be invited by meditation, itself an altered state, or profound insights may arrive like an 'enlightening' bolt. In any case, mystics seem to confirm perspectives like those of conscious realism. Mystics, such as some buddhist monks, report the existence of an all-embracing, loving presence beyond time and space.
Two common states of awareness exist: conscious and unconscious. Where the term unconscious represents of a lack of awareness, consciousness itself can present with varying levels of awareness. This is often referred to as a person's state of consciousness. human consciousness can be altered in a number of different ways including through hypnosis, with drugs, and mental exercises. Reaching an altered state of consciousness can also be achieved through various types of meditation and mind-body practices. Practices.
When i speak of the “psychotic core”, i wish not to be misunderstood as a shirking mystic resigned to glorified nihilism. I am no “knight of infinite resignation”. There are plenty who have such experiences of mindful intensity that they walk away forever scorched and scarred by the abundance of light: there is not a dearth of “reason” in the world , there is an overabundance. Causality, linearity, fractal consequence, the seduction of pattern and recursion and everything the “love of knowledge” breeds, dancing within the kaleidoscope of a moment of awakening – never is the horror vacui at work more than here where consciousness and the “i” emerge as though finally freed from their prison.
References [ edit ]
The sleep collection was designed to help you quiet your mind, release tension, and fall fast asleep. Wake up feeling well rested, full of energy, and ready to tackle whatever is on your schedule. References:
walinga, j and stangor, c. Introduction to psychology 1st canadian edition.
States of consciousness. Https://opentextbc. Ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/chapter-5-states-of-consciousness/ [accessed 15 april 2020]. Koch, c and greenfield, s. How does consciousness happen? scientific american [online] october 2007: 76-83. Available at: https://panet. Andover. Edu/bbcswebdav/institution/scie/scie/science%20490/consciousness/how%20does%20consciousness%20happen. Pdf
yue, carole. Khan academy. States of consciousness. Https://www. Khanacademy. Org/science/health-and-medicine/executive-systems-of-the-
brain
/sleep-and-consciousness-lesson/v/sleep-and-consciousness [accessed 15 april 2020]
walinga, j and stangor, c. Introduction to psychology 1st canadian edition.
Altering consciousness without drugs.
Biological function and evolution [ edit ]
Assigning value to subjective experience accounts for flexible, creative behaviour. As we have discussed, while subjective experience is connected to extrinsic rewards, some of which serve biological functions, we act mostly to find ourselves in rewarding phenomenal states and to avoid finding ourselves in bad phenomenal states. For instance, our main ‘motivation’ to eat is to obtain the ‘reward’ of ‘feeling’ satiated, not to fulfil the biological function of nourishing our body, albeit the former undoubtedly serves the latter. In this sense, phenomenal states answer to a subjective rather than objective fitness function ( hesp et al. 2021 ). In many other cases, however, and crucially for this argument, we engage in behaviour that serves no biological function whatsoever and that may even be detrimental to our own existence.
Well, many leading scientists would agree. Consciousness has always been a bit of a fringe science between philosophy, psychology, physics, and neuroscience, without ever becoming a serious topic of study. Until now, perhaps triggered by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, and increasing ethical questions about the treatment of animals. We need answers to these questions, and the pressure is mounting. Yet many, such as professor sean carroll would simply say there’s nothing special going on. Wallace has said there is no physics of digestion either, it’s just biology, end of the story. Yet even rather outlandish concepts like panpsychism are gaining some ground, presenting consciousness more as a force of nature like gravity, than a mere biological function.
How Did Life Begin?
When people have difficulty getting sleep due to their work or the demands of day-to-day life, they accumulate a sleep debt. A person with a sleep debt does not get sufficient sleep on a chronic basis. The consequences of sleep debt include decreased levels of alertness and mental efficiency. Interestingly, since the advent of electric light, the amount of sleep that people get has declined. While we certainly welcome the convenience of having the darkness lit up, we also suffer the consequences of reduced amounts of sleep because we are more active during the nighttime hours than our ancestors were.
For years i’ve batted it away. I’ll be talking about my discoveries in the computational universe , and computational irreducibility , and my principle of computational equivalence , and people will ask “so what does this mean about consciousness?” and i’ll say “that’s a slippery topic”. And i’ll start talking about the sequence: life, intelligence, consciousness. I’ll ask “what is the abstract definition of life ?” we know about the case of life on earth, with all its rna and proteins and other implementation details. But how do we generalize? what is life generally? and i’ll argue that it’s really just computational sophistication, which the principle of computational equivalence says happens all over the place.
Consciousness is not a process in the brain but a kind of behavior that, of course, is controlled by the brain like any other behavior. Human consciousness emerges on the interface between three components of animal behavior: communication, play, and the use of tools. These three components interact on the basis of anticipatory behavioral control, which is common for all complex forms of animal life. All three do not exclusively distinguish our close relatives, i. E. , primates, but are broadly presented among various species of mammals, birds, and even cephalopods; however, their particular combination in humans is unique.
If a person is in a permanent vegetative state for 12 months after a traumatic brain injury, or 6 months after a non-traumatic brain injury, then it may be recommended to withdraw their nutritional support. This is because: there's almost no chance of a recovery by this point prolonging life would have no benefit for the person concerned prolonging treatment could offer false hope and cause unnecessary emotional distress for the friends and family of the person concerned the medical team will discuss the issue with family members. If the family disagrees with the decision, then it will be referred to the courts.