Consciousness

Having initiated a philosophical discussion here, I am loth to let it go immediately. These issues are relevant to a lot of literature, fiction, sf and fantasy even though we have, for the time being, moved away from the particular text that we started with.

I think that the following propositions are at least reasonable and are backed up by a lot of evidence. First, naturally occurring consciousness is a property of organisms with central nervous systems. Thus, consciousness is generated not by mere complexity but by a particular kind of sensitivity and complexity in some organisms. These organisms have made the transition from needing sustenance to feeling hunger or from becoming dangerously hot to feeling painfully hot.

Secondly, when such an organism ceases to function, its neurons no longer fire or interact. The former organism, now decaying into inanimate matter, no longer experiences, thinks or dreams. Its properties are now merely physical and chemical but no longer biological or psychological. Its consciousness has ceased to exist just as the content of a single-copy private journal ceases to exist if the journal is burned to ashes.

Of course, we can imagine ways in which our memories and identity might be reproduced elsewhere after our deaths or indeed even while we are still alive.

See:

Minds and Brains

Dead Men (Tell Tall Tales)