In the process of brain evolution, it began to simulate the surrounding environment, and finally, it began to simulate itself as well. The organism may have acquired an ego, and at the same time, it may have developed consciousness.
Conditions for the emergence of consciousness
First of all, let’s think about the conditions under which consciousness arises. In conclusion, I believe that consciousness arises when we are aware of ourselves (ego).
As a concrete example, imagine that you are writing a report under pressure of a deadline. At this time, I am writing the report without making any unnecessary decisions about whether to do it or not. Mindlessly, that’s right, working on an assignment without any ego. I don’t believe that there is any consciousness in this state. It’s just like a robot following orders.
Also, let’s think about dreams. When you are dreaming, you are present and have an ego. That is why you feel conscious. However, when you are in a deep sleep, you do not have an ego and therefore cannot have consciousness. However, it does not mean that the brain is stopped, and it is performing various tasks just like when we are dreaming.
In recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to the topic of whether artificial intelligence can develop consciousness. If I were to answer this question by applying my argument, I would say, “If artificial intelligence recognizes itself and has an ego, consciousness will be born at that time. (Well, I guess it’s not that easy.)
In other words, if there is a device that recognizes itself, then that device will also have consciousness. For example, Siri says, “I am Siri,” which at first glance makes it seem as if it recognizes itself, but the fact that it is only uttering a pre-programmed string of characters in response to the input of a human voice does not mean that it has an ego. Therefore, it can be said that it has no consciousness. Of course, since we are not Siri, we can’t understand how she feels. So, in reality, only the device itself can tell whether it has an ego or not.
Unfortunately, I can’t develop a meaningful theory about whether the ego is conscious because it has an ego, or whether the ego is conscious because it has an ego, but I will proceed from here based on the assumption that the ego is conscious because it has an ego.
The Muscular Control Unit
Next, let’s look at the brain, the place where consciousness originates. I think of the brain as a device that controls the muscles based on input from the sensory organs.
For example, let’s consider the action of kicking back a ball that has rolled by. In response to the visual input of a rolling ball, we output the muscle movement (or more precisely, the electrical signals that control the muscles) to kick back the ball.
I believe that human life is a series of repetitions of such input and output, nothing more and nothing less.
No, no, no. Some people may think that human beings think and act on their own, and that this cannot be explained by mere input and output. What this means is that when the cause of an action is self-induced, such as “I wanted to eat curry and rice, so I ate curry and rice,” it is a spontaneous human emotion. Is this really so? I believe that such complex behaviors can be explained by input and output. As an example, the input from the stomach (hunger), the input from the nose (smell of curry rice), and the input from the hippocampus (?) (curry rice was delicious), etc., are all influenced by the input from the brain. This is not limited to humans, of course.
Of course, this is true not only for humans, but also for all organisms with brains. The nematode, a very incompetent (sorry) organism with only 302 neurons, seems to be just such a device. Humans are probably just a slightly more complex version of it.
Evolution of the Brain
Now that you are convinced that the brain is a device that produces output in response to input, let’s think about the main question: how did the brain come to recognize itself?
In the early stages of biological evolution, the brain was almost nonexistent, and people lived almost reflexively. In the same way that we reflexively retract our hands when we touch something hot, we probably lived by reflexively moving our muscles in response to input from our sensory organs. In fact, cnidarians (sea urchins, starfish, etc.) do not have brains. They move reflexively by means of nerves that are stretched throughout their body.
Rather than living by reflex, can’t we use the information obtained from our sensory organs in a more useful way? For example, rather than simply reacting to the movement of its prey, an organism that can grasp the speed at which its prey is moving would be able to catch its prey better. In this way, the brain, which controls the organism itself, will evolve from more sensory organs to be able to perform more complex muscular movements through deeper thinking.
In the course of such evolution, the brain has also become capable of predicting the future. It simulates the surrounding environment in the brain and guesses what will happen in the near future. I don’t have to tell you how useful this is. If you can figure out where your prey will be in the future, you will have an advantage in the hunt. Also, if you can predict how the environment around you will change, you can prepare in advance.
Because of its extreme usefulness, the future prediction function has evolved rapidly. Finally, it began to simulate the future, including itself. I think of this as the moment of self-awareness. Of course, without predicting ourselves, we would not be able to make highly accurate predictions. Even when chasing prey, it is necessary to predict both the location of the target and your own position. By thinking about ourselves, we may have created the subject of “self.
The emergence of consciousness
Having recognized oneself, consciousness is also thought to arise. A device that was merely reacting to external stimuli becomes conscious. Just like we do now, we feel pleasure, pain, sleepiness, and so on. This is a privilege that only a conscious being can have, not a robot that just repeats input and output.
As I was writing this, I felt that the evidence for the claim that “the acquisition of the ego leads to the emergence of consciousness” was weak (or almost non-existent), and I was not convinced. I would like to summarize it by saying something like, “Consciousness is only possible when there is a subject called ‘self.
The End
Hmmm. I tried to write what I thought about the emergence of consciousness, but it didn’t come together well. It’s not very clear. It doesn’t seem to make any sense at all.
The question of what consciousness is is very interesting, so I’m going to read more books on the subject.