Consciousness

The post-organic intelligences in Poul Anderson's Genesis are conscious. Some of them even incorporate conscious memories that had been uploaded from human individuals before those individuals had died. The philosophical question of the nature of consciousness remains relevant to sf.

Is consciousness an energy field that interacts with a brain and that might continue to exist after body and brain have ceased to function? (Here, I am thinking more specifically of Midsummer Century by James Blish, of Immortality, Inc. by Robert Sheckley and of Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer although the question is obviously more generally relevant. The Time Machine refers to immaterial mental existences.)

I do not think that such a field exists but, if it does, then it is not consciousness. Some objective processes somehow cause subjective processes. When an organism not only is (objectively) dangerously hot but also (subjectively) feels uncomfortably hot, then that organism has become conscious. Thus, consciousness is a property of an organism caused by processes within that organism which in turn are caused by that organism's interactions with its environment.

Empirically, the organic processes causing consciousness occur within a central nervous system and involve neurological interactions. Whether those neurological interactions in turn interact with an energy field is an empirical question but, if so, then this energy field is part of the causation of the property of consciousness. It is not simply identical with consciousness. Empirically, neurons are necessary for memory so would the hypothetical field retain memories after separation from a brain?