The Paradox of Consciousness
Graduate school may have been a blur yet one of the most vivid recollections of my final week entails watching the movie Ex Machina in hacker society and leaving with the thought: what really is consciousness? Quite frankly, I found myself at hacker society that particular day because of a free pizza Ad but I cannot complain about the added inspiration.
Many have wondered what consciousness is and where it originates from. As tantalizing as it is to assume that consciousness hailed from the formation of the first cell, my postulation is that it precedes life itself.
In fact, there are people who believe that atoms may be conscious. One of the chief reasons for this belief traces back to inconsistent behaviors of particles under certain conditions.
It has been known for some time that electrons at sub-micron distances behave as waves without an observer. Under such circumstances, electrons can simultaneously pass through several openings in a barrier and recombine at the other side. A phenomenon dubbed as interference.
However, the presence of an observer forces the electrons to behave like particles. When the particle is seen going through one opening, it becomes clear that the other opening will not be traversed. The particle, in this case, appears to be aware when it is being watched and when it is not.
Experiments by institutions such as the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the Australian National University have confirmed this.
Even so, the signal quality of electron interference is found to be inversely proportional to the level of observation. In other words, when the capacity of the electron detectors are reduced, the interference increases (and vice versa).
So what is to be made of this? Can particles indeed claim consciousness or are we basking in some sort of bliss? Instinctive grasp of these cases only reveals the limitations of the observer rather than some mysterious awareness of the particle. Professor Andrew Truscott is among a few scientists who believe that “at the quantum level, reality does not even exist until measured”.
Consciousness is not binary, it is not a matter of “have” and “have not”. Rather, I posit that there may be various degrees of consciousness. Surprisingly, these varying degrees can actually be measured. Although not very refined at the moment, I believe more precise scales can be expected in the future. The image below is a rudimentary illustration of the degrees of consciousness.
Intuitively, the degree of consciousness is inextricably intertwined with life. You cannot describe life without first defining consciousness because one of the main prerequisites for life is consciousness. This is why no artificial intelligence (AI) will ever reach the human level of consciousness because even if they achieve (or surpass human intellect) they will always lack sentience.
However, this relationship between life and consciousness does not apply in the reverse order. While all living things possess consciousness, not all beings that boast of consciousness can be considered alive.
This is because consciousness can exist outside of life. For instance, spiritual entities, if they do exist, would possess consciousness although they would not be counted among the living. The anomalies here brings us full circle to the question in the opening paragraph, that is: what the f**k is consciousness? An explanation of consciousness demands some analysis of living things.
Most of us can agree that animals are conscious in varying degrees. Human beings may be more sophisticated in these ranks for their ingenuity, communication, and morality. Yet some animals are no stranger to a few of these qualities. Most of us have seen birds construct nests, that’s a form of ingenuity. Additionally, we are aware that animals communicate among themselves so we are not the only ones with this intricate design.
Moreover, animals can express emotions in very similar ways as humans. Look up people scaring cat compilations on YouTube and you will know that consciousness without emotion is almost as good as dead. Various animals have even displayed logical reasoning in solving problems. Elephants can be taught to draw self-portraits with their trunks.
While none of these animals can be seen stressing over quadratic equations on a Friday night, chimps can nonetheless perform various counting operations with 90% accuracy.
Furthermore, who can confidently say that all animals lack morality? Perhaps, someone could, but the critical limitation here is that we do not know everything we can possibly know about every animal to safely preclude them from morality.
Although animals may not be able to contemplate morality in the logical sense known to humans, we have all seen extraordinary kindness from dogs, dolphins, tigers, and lions — a trait we have seen various wild animals repeatedly display to abandoned infants in the wild. A much more accurate response is to admit that we do not know whether animals possess morality or not.
But what about awareness? There can be no coherent argument for consciousness without the musings of René Descartes: “I think, therefore I am”. Descartes asserted that the act of doubting reinforces one’s existence. Awareness of existence can be considered as the ability to recognize one’s place in the universe. Do animals know their place? We certainly know ours and we are not that different if you asked Darwin.
Fundamentally, a mixture of different qualities gives rise to consciousness. The higher the percentage of these features, the higher the level of expected consciousness. The following are a few of the constituents on this list:
Sentience + Intelligence + Wisdom + Awareness +…
From basic living cells to inexplicably advanced organisms like human beings, combinations of qualities above (in varying degrees) bestow consciousness. And if a supreme deity existed, His level would be on the far end of the consciousness spectrum –– primarily for majestic qualities such as omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. The highest level of consciousness would require the ability to know everything at all times. This can only be possible if the entity is not confined to the same limitations of time as living things.
What’s more, spiritual entities would have higher consciousness than human beings because they could exist outside of time — yet they would be capable of emotions and possess higher intellect. The elevated rank placed on spiritual beings comes from the logic that the living has no way of knowing whether such transcendent beings such as spirits, ghosts, and God exist.
However, the existence of transcendent beings would presuppose the existence of God. By this rationality, spiritual entities would be aware not only of their own existence but also the existence of living things and God. According to this measure of awareness, human beings would rank lower on the consciousness scale.
By similar reasoning, computational consciousness has already surpassed human beings in very specified arithmetic tasks. Yet humans exceed current computational awareness by unimaginable degrees when all aspects are taken into account.
You would think that with such dominance in awareness comes a more complete understanding of one’s self yet this could not be farther from the truth. Although a high level of awareness is one of the vital tools required to understand consciousness, consciousness is among the phenomena human beings comprehend the least. The paradox of consciousness is a sad truth that our boosted awareness brings us no closer to a complete understanding of ourselves.
It is almost as if the more aware we become, the more we are forced to confront our knowledge of the unknown.
In the history of mankind, human beings have only managed to tap into less than 10% of their mental capacity. Perhaps, the Greek philosopher Socrates may have been onto something when he concluded thousands of years ago that: the more we know, the more we become aware of how little we know.
What insight can you contribute to this consciousness discussion? Share your opinion in the response section. You can also reach out to us if you have any corrections or improvement suggestions.
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For more interesting insights about consciousness, read my other article. Link below
