What is conciousness.

[someonesomeguy]

{I am making this threads cause I am surrounded by idiots and sick of stupidity of the world and live in a mostly third world shit country. Thus i am just going to talk to myself and any eldritch gods which may be listening against my better judgement. Now without further adu let's begin.}

What i am saying has no real empirical proof but this applies to most things said about consciousness.These are just only of my many ideas about the topic.


Well i think consciousness is a phenomena. Like if i teleported lots of electrons from your brain and just arranged them in a block of carbon then for like 0.1 second i would have your consciousness in that block. That block would be alive and you. Then those electrons would flow normally and you would cease to exist.

So i think consciousness exists in your electrons not in your protons or neutrons. Why?
my intuition goes like this.

Consciousness and your thoughts are rapidly changing . They can't be a physical thing unmoving thing because physical things don't change quickly. If you would have a wire of steel then it can't change from one shape to another shape in 0.1 second. Though you can change the direction of current in it. You can move the current flow in it from one point to another point very quickly. Changing that is easy.

So now cause consciousness changes so quickly it should be a type of electrical current.


if i took and threw away your nucleus and put them suspended in space then they won't be conscious.
If i took out your electrons and can somehow move your electrons in the same way as they would move with a nucleus then i think you would be conscious.


Now here are some other thought experiments .
if i slowly replace the atoms of your brain by the atoms of your foot a atom at a time. So your frontal lobe are your ankle muscles and your ankle muscles are your medulla oblongeta.
Then you would die because the atoms which made you conscious aren't conscious anymore as they are part of your foot. So only your brain is alive.

Now what if i replace your neurons with the atom of your skull. Your bone isn't conscious so you still die.
So only neurons are conscious.
But what if i replace atoms of your cerebrum (the part which has memory intelligence and consciousness ) with the atoms of your cerebellum (the part which controls the motor skills).
Well intelligence and personality is alive but motor skills aren't alive they are also like your muscles so you still die.

Now it is a myth that your bodies atom get replaced every 7 years. (this isn't true)

Now if i think of chemical reactions

If there is a sea of electron then electrons very quickly leave and are detached from there parent atoms. Exchange of electrons happens very quickly in body.
So eventually the parts of cerebrum which move ions and electrons are going to exchange the electrons with rest of the brain. So electrons of cerebrum leave cerebrum and are sent to a non conscious parts .

So now if the conscious electrons have left and are not part of arrangement which would form consciousness.
Then you are dead.

Now this probably happens everyday.
Of course i am not saying anything with empirical proof here but there is no empirical proof that
the one you which sleeps everyday is the one which wakes up everyday.

Let's see burden of proof.
a person acts in specific ways when going to sleep has thoughts and personality. Then he sleeps . Then brain activates again and a person exists which behaves similarly is met by you tomorrow.
How do you know the person is you.
This isn't religion by the way. I am not the one making the claim .
It is definitely a possibility that brain generates a new consciousness every-time you wake up .
You are the one making the claim that even though your conciousness ceases it is somehow ressurected next day instead of just a new consciousness existing which isn't you.

In relegion a person claims that god exists. Here you are claming that you exist after waking up.

The fact that you are similar to the person yesterday is not enough evidence to conclude that you wake up tomorrow.
I can easily argue that every-time you sleep you are determined and are having feelings about stuff. Maybe regret or sadness or happiness but when you wake up it all fades. So you are not even similar to the person who slept.
Maybe it is cause you were just born today from a blueprint and the determined you did not lose his determination but just ceased to exist.



Oh and sweet dreams. If you are having existensial crisis that was the intention.



This is not formal logic or mathematical or physics type proof Nor am i speaking with any authority. this is just my intuition and it is closer to philosophy then actual scientific theories but that can be said about lot of things in science. (looking at you PBS spacetime calming that time doesn't flow .You can't prove that time doesn't flow. It's just pseudoscience and just philosophy what you are claiming)
Everything i said isn't easily falsifiable and is theoretical. This can be said about lot of science.
If i end up right then shit all human race is wasted.
but since i don't have any proof of me being right i am working on the assumption i am wrong.
Cause if i end up being right then fuck
if i end up being wrong then great.
If i just die now then it would be very stupid if i turn out to be wrong.
So it makes sense to live cause the arguments i provided aren't empirical evidence enough.

 

[Agentt]

Phew, that's a long question
Okay, psychology student here. I believe I can give some insight
The question you have asked has been asked by many many people before you

 

[someonesomeguy]

Phew, that's a long question
Okay, psychology student here. I believe I can give some insight
The question you have asked has been asked by many many people before you

well that question is basically the answer to what what i think may be one explanation of consciousness.
Just had to get that out of my system and post it somewhere or i would have exploded.
Also i am gonna talk about lobbying and then a follow up on consciousness then what i think of scientific method. Then about emotions and desires and stuff.

 

[Agentt]

First of all, let's talk about conscious. What is it? We don't know. We have an idea of course, but well, it's not like we can take it apart and study it. Let's take a look at this question
At what point does a bunch of straw becomes a heap.
We don't know. Yet if you ask a person if that bundle over there is a heap, they will be able to identify it. Take an average of about 2000 more people, and you have the basis of psychology
Conscious can be defined as
You have an identity
You act in self interest
You can detect harm.
Surely, taking a few atoms doesn't make you lose consciousness, does it? It does. Kinda. Everyone has different ways to explain this, I'll try to use your own theory to do so

 

[Draconite]

Here's a very simple answer

"I think, therefore i am"

Doesn't matter wether you are a split personality, resurrected, have your brain removed, living inside a simulation, etc. As long as you can think you exist

 

[Agentt]

Mind is different from brain. It is equivalent to god. If I transplant your brain in someone, will they get your memories? Your intellect? No. Mind exist everywhere, as far you can imagine. You are imagining yourself to be an astronaut? Your mind is in space now. It is computing how the environment would look like, the risk possible and how the natural laws would deviate. This might feel a bit religious but mind exist in every cell of your body.
So does teleporting changes my mind? Yes. But that is part of living. You can be sad about dying one day but you can't let that down. Since entropy exist, your atoms are rapidly changing, your cells dying and neurons deactivation. It is a part of process. We are born with an empty slate, its size bieng set by your Gene's and your environment. After that it is an ever evolving blueprint.
For this we can ask, what is the purpose of humanity. Well, do you know why I know this? Why has the country decided to share everything it knew about psychology just because I ticked a box while selecting my subjects? Cuz we know we are imperfect. Lots of people act arrogant and all knowing but they never do so when it comes to work. Humanity is desperately looking for more knowledge, logic, art, music, religion. Nothing is ever wasted. You might call us a mistake or pest but we have survived for millions of years and I'll bet we shall live for another.
Oh, and yeah, it is kinda true that the whole body gets replaced in a few years. It's not like you just woke up and shed your old skin. It's just an approximation looking at cell division.

Here's a very simple answer

"I think, therefore i am"

Doesn't matter wether you are a split personality, resurrected, have your brain removed, living inside a simulation, etc. As long as you can think you exist

What about your average single office worker. He wakes up, freashens up, goes to work, eat at lunch what ever the cafeteria made, gets back to work, comes home, sleep. A monotonous life which doesn't have any room for opinion. Take a student preparing for exams. He doesn't think. Both of them are machines, just following a schedule and fulfilling primal desire. They are still conscious tho,

 

[Napelynn]

I'm not smart enough for this
If you think and you have some semblance of free will you have a consciousness right?

 

[Deleted member 29316]

Cogito ergo sum.

 

[WasatchWind]

{I am making this threads cause I am surrounded by idiots and sick of stupidity of the world and live in a mostly third world shit country. Thus i am just going to talk to myself and any eldritch gods which may be listening against my better judgement. Now without further adu let's begin.}

What i am saying has no real empirical proof but this applies to most things said about consciousness.These are just only of my many ideas about the topic.


Well i think consciousness is a phenomena. Like if i teleported lots of electrons from your brain and just arranged them in a block of carbon then for like 0.1 second i would have your consciousness in that block. That block would be alive and you. Then those electrons would flow normally and you would cease to exist.

So i think consciousness exists in your electrons not in your protons or neutrons. Why?
my intuition goes like this.

Consciousness and your thoughts are rapidly changing . They can't be a physical thing unmoving thing because physical things don't change quickly. If you would have a wire of steel then it can't change from one shape to another shape in 0.1 second. Though you can change the direction of current in it. You can move the current flow in it from one point to another point very quickly. Changing that is easy.

So now cause consciousness changes so quickly it should be a type of electrical current.


if i took and threw away your nucleus and put them suspended in space then they won't be conscious.
If i took out your electrons and can somehow move your electrons in the same way as they would move with a nucleus then i think you would be conscious.


Now here are some other thought experiments .
if i slowly replace the atoms of your brain by the atoms of your foot a atom at a time. So your frontal lobe are your ankle muscles and your ankle muscles are your medulla oblongeta.
Then you would die because the atoms which made you conscious aren't conscious anymore as they are part of your foot. So only your brain is alive.

Now what if i replace your neurons with the atom of your skull. Your bone isn't conscious so you still die.
So only neurons are conscious.
But what if i replace atoms of your cerebrum (the part which has memory intelligence and consciousness ) with the atoms of your cerebellum (the part which controls the motor skills).
Well intelligence and personality is alive but motor skills aren't alive they are also like your muscles so you still die.

Now it is a myth that your bodies atom get replaced every 7 years. (this isn't true)

Now if i think of chemical reactions

If there is a sea of electron then electrons very quickly leave and are detached from there parent atoms. Exchange of electrons happens very quickly in body.
So eventually the parts of cerebrum which move ions and electrons are going to exchange the electrons with rest of the brain. So electrons of cerebrum leave cerebrum and are sent to a non conscious parts .

So now if the conscious electrons have left and are not part of arrangement which would form consciousness.
Then you are dead.

Now this probably happens everyday.
Of course i am not saying anything with empirical proof here but there is no empirical proof that
the one you which sleeps everyday is the one which wakes up everyday.

Let's see burden of proof.
a person acts in specific ways when going to sleep has thoughts and personality. Then he sleeps . Then brain activates again and a person exists which behaves similarly is met by you tomorrow.
How do you know the person is you.
This isn't religion by the way. I am not the one making the claim .
It is definitely a possibility that brain generates a new consciousness every-time you wake up .
You are the one making the claim that even though your conciousness ceases it is somehow ressurected next day instead of just a new consciousness existing which isn't you.

In relegion a person claims that god exists. Here you are claming that you exist after waking up.

The fact that you are similar to the person yesterday is not enough evidence to conclude that you wake up tomorrow.
I can easily argue that every-time you sleep you are determined and are having feelings about stuff. Maybe regret or sadness or happiness but when you wake up it all fades. So you are not even similar to the person who slept.
Maybe it is cause you were just born today from a blueprint and the determined you did not lose his determination but just ceased to exist.



Oh and sweet dreams. If you are having existensial crisis that was the intention.



This is not formal logic or mathematical or physics type proof Nor am i speaking with any authority. this is just my intuition and it is closer to philosophy then actual scientific theories but that can be said about lot of things in science. (looking at you PBS spacetime calming that time doesn't flow .You can't prove that time doesn't flow. It's just pseudoscience and just philosophy what you are claiming)
Everything i said isn't easily falsifiable and is theoretical. This can be said about lot of science.
If i end up right then shit all human race is wasted.
but since i don't have any proof of me being right i am working on the assumption i am wrong.
Cause if i end up being right then fuck
if i end up being wrong then great.
If i just die now then it would be very stupid if i turn out to be wrong.
So it makes sense to live cause the arguments i provided aren't empirical evidence enough.

My personal view on consciousness is that it is not just the result of or processes in the brain.

I think that our consciousness is more on a higher dimension where we cannot see it, but the brain manifests interaction with it.

This is, of course, basically the idea of a soul, though in slightly more scientific wording. I don't see exactly why this would be considered ridiculous by some.

This would account for why, I believe a completely intact corpse with no bodily damage would not be alive, because the consciousness necessary to animate it is gone.

 

[CrusadeAgainstFurries]

I'm too lazy so I'll just copypaste a few parts from a CIA document concerning consciousness:

11. Consciousness and Energy​

Before our explanation can proceed any further, it is essential to define the mechanism by which the human mind exercises the function known as consciousness, and to describe the way in which that consciousness operates to deduce meaning from the stimuli which it receives. To do this, we will first consider the fundamental character of the material world in which we have our physical existence in order to accurately perceive the raw stuff with which our consciousness must work.

The first point which needs to be made is that the two terms, matter and energy tend to be misleading if taken to indicate two distinctly different states of existence in the physical world that we know it. Indeed, if the term matter is taken to mean solid substance as opposed to energy which is understood to mean a force of some sort, then the use of the former is entirely misleading. Science now knows that both the electrons which spin in the energy field located around the nucleus of the atom and the nucleus itself are made up of nothing more than oscillating energy grids. Solid matter, in the strict construction of the term, simply does not exist. Rather, atomic structure is composed of oscillating energy grids surrounded by other oscillating energy grids which orbit at extraordinarily high speeds. In his book, Stalking The Wild Pendulum, Itzhak Bentov gives the following figures.

The energy grid which composes the nucleus of the atom vibrates at approximately 10²² Hertz (which means 10 followed by 22 zeros). At 70 degrees fahrenheit an atom oscillates at the rate of 1015 Hertz. An entire molecule, composed of a number of atoms bound together in a single energy field vibrates in the range of 109 Hertz. A live human cell vibrates at approximately 103 Hertz. The point to be made is that the entire
human being, brain, consciousness and all is, like the universe which surrounds him, nothing more or less than an extraordinarily complex system of energy fields.

The so called states of matter are actually variances in the state of energy, and human consciousness is a function of the interaction of energy in two opposite states(motion vs rest) in a manner described in the following paragraph.

12. Holograms​

Energy creates, stores and retrieves meaning in the universe by projecting or expanding at certain frequencies in a three dimensional mode that creates a living pattern called a hologram. The concept of the hologram can be most easily understood by using an example cited by Bentov in which he asks the
reader to visualize a bowl full of water into which three pebbles are dropped. As the ripples created by the simultaneous entry of the three pebbles radiate outward towards the rim of the bowl, Bentov further asks the reader to visualize that the surface of the water is suddenly flash frozen so that the ripple pattern is preserved instantly. The ice is removed leaving the three pebbles still laying at the bottom of the bowl. Then the ice is exposed to a powerful, coherent source of light, such as a laser. The result will be a three dimensional model or representation of the position of the three pebbles suspended in midair.

Holograms are capable of encoding so much detail that, for example, it is possible to take a holographic projection of a glass of swamp water and view it under magnification to see small organisms not visible to the naked eye when the glass of water itself is examined. The whole concept of holography, despite its scientific implications, has only been known to the physicist since the underlying mathematical principles were worked out by Dennis Gabor in 1947 (he later won a Nobel Prize for his work).

Laboratory demonstration of Gabor’s work only occurred years later following
invention of the laser. As biologist Lyall Watson explains:

“The purest kind of light available to us is that produced by a laser, which
sends out a beam in which all the waves are of one frequency, like those made
by an ideal pebble in a perfect pond. When two laser beams touch, they produce an interference pattern of light and dark ripples that can be recorded on a photographic plate. And if one of the beams, instead of coming directly from the laser, is reflected first off an object such as a human face, the resulting pattern will be very complex indeed, but it can still be recorded. The record will be a hologram of the face.”

13. The Part Encodes the Whole​

Of further importance is the fact that even if we dropped our frozen hologram of the ripple pattern on the floor and broke it into a number of pieces each individual piece would recreate the entire holographic image all by itself. The smaller the piece, the fuzzier and more distorted would be the resulting holographic projection but the fact remains that a whole projection would
nonetheless be made.

The key to creating any hologram is that energy in motion must interact with energy in a state of rest (nonmotion). In the foregoing example, the pebbles represent energy in motion while the water (before its agitation by the pebbles) represents energy at a state of rest. To activate or, in effect, to “perceive” the meaning of a holograph, energy (in this case, a coherent light source such as a laser beam) must be passed through the interference pattern generated by interaction between the moving energy and the energy at rest. In the simple example given by Bentov, this requirement was fulfilled by holding the frozen interference pattern in front of the coherent light to project the three dimensional holographic image (its “meaning”) into space. As Marilyn Ferguson, editor of the Brain/Mind Bulletin tells us:

“Another feature of a hologram it’s efficiency. Billions of bits of
information can be stored in a tiny space. The pattern of the holographic
[photograph]…is stored everywhere on the plate.”

14. The Consciousness Matrix​

The universe is composed of interacting energy fields, some at rest and some in motion. It is, in and of itself, one gigantic hologram of unbelievable complexity. According to the theories of Karl Pribram, a neuroscientist at Stanford University and David Bohm, a physicist at the University of London, the human mind is also a hologram which attunes itself to the universal hologram by the medium of energy exchange thereby deducing meaning and achieving the state which we call consciousness. With respect to states of expanded or altered consciousness such as Gateway uses, the process operates in the following way.

As energy passes through various aspects of the universal hologram and is perceived by the electrostatic fields which comprise the human mind, the holographic images being conveyed are projected upon those electrostatic fields of the mind and are perceived or understood to the extent that the electrostatic field is operating at a frequency and amplitude that can harmonize with and therefore “read” the energy carrier wave pattern passing through it. Changes in the frequency and amplitude of the electrostatic field which comprises the human mind determines the configuration and hence the character of the holographic energy matrix which the mind projects to intercept meaning directly from the holographic transmissions of the universe.

Then, to make sense of what the holographic image is “saying” to it, the mind proceeds to compare the image just received with itself. Specifically, it does this by comparing the image received with that part of its own hologram which constitutes memory. By registering differences in geometric form and in energy frequency, the consciousness perceives (see Exhibit 2).

 

[someonesomeguy]

Here's a very simple answer

"I think, therefore i am"

Doesn't matter wether you are a split personality, resurrected, have your brain removed, living inside a simulation, etc. As long as you can think you exist

You are completely missing my point. I am not claiming that you aren't conscious.
I am claiming that whenever you sleep you die. When you wake it's a clone which is consciousness. You are dead. The clone has all your memories. You died when you slept.

Cogito ergo sum.

The brain generates a new person when you wake up.

 

[Agentt]

I'm not smart enough for this
If you think and you have some semblance of free will you have a consciousness right?

Oh, don't worry. We all here are just some idiots who think they are too smart for this world. Your definition is correct. Conscious is like god. He exist if you believe him to exist.

 

[someonesomeguy]

Mind is different from brain. It is equivalent to god. If I transplant your brain in someone, will they get your memories? Your intellect? No. Mind exist everywhere, as far you can imagine. You are imagining yourself to be an astronaut? Your mind is in space now. It is computing how the environment would look like, the risk possible and how the natural laws would deviate. This might feel a bit religious but mind exist in every cell of your body.
So does teleporting changes my mind? Yes. But that is part of living. You can be sad about dying one day but you can't let that down. Since entropy exist, your atoms are rapidly changing, your cells dying and neurons deactivation. It is a part of process. We are born with an empty slate, its size bieng set by your Gene's and your environment. After that it is an ever evolving blueprint.
For this we can ask, what is the purpose of humanity. Well, do you know why I know this? Why has the country decided to share everything it knew about psychology just because I ticked a box while selecting my subjects? Cuz we know we are imperfect. Lots of people act arrogant and all knowing but they never do so when it comes to work. Humanity is desperately looking for more knowledge, logic, art, music, religion. Nothing is ever wasted. You might call us a mistake or pest but we have survived for millions of years and I'll bet we shall live for another.
Oh, and yeah, it is kinda true that the whole body gets replaced in a few years. It's not like you just woke up and shed your old skin. It's just an approximation looking at cell division.

What about your average single office worker. He wakes up, freashens up, goes to work, eat at lunch what ever the cafeteria made, gets back to work, comes home, sleep. A monotonous life which doesn't have any room for opinion. Take a student preparing for exams. He doesn't think. Both of them are machines, just following a schedule and fulfilling primal desire. They are still conscious tho,

neurons aren't replaced every year. I am pretty sure you can test it by injecting radioactive isotopes in your brain. If your brain stays radioactive then it's not getting replaced.
Some cells aren't replaced ever,

No, really: Aboveground nuclear detonations during World War II and the Cold War spiked Earth’s air supply with extra carbon-14. It’s been declining back toward the norm at a predictable rate since the 1960s. Which means that you can use the amount of it present in any given tissue sample to determine when those cells were born. More carbon-14 means older cells..

{It is equivalent to god. If I transplant your brain in someone, will they get your memories? Your intellect? No}
well what part of brain you are talking about cause if you transplant my whole brain it is equivalent to me taking over someone's body and killing that person

 

[High-in-the-skys]

At some point, if people keep using "I think, therefore I am" here, there is a chance that it could devolve/evolve to "solipsism" so I will drop the word here.

For @someonesomeguy, why would it matter? If one rejects the chance that we "reset", then one might not agree with the concept of "resurrection".
Going back to your topic, what would you consider to be "you", is it the physical world evidences such as memories(I meant the brain part that stores them) or the vague moving electrons that I could consider "conciousness" from my lack of knowledge.

Depending on how you answer can determine how you consider us 'dying'

Btw is it good that I completed my magic system for my story by reading @CrusadeAgainstFurries's post?

 

[someonesomeguy]

At some point, if people keep using "I think, therefore I am" here, there is a chance that it could devolve/evolve to "solipsism" so I will drop the word here.

For @someonesomeguy, why would it matter? If one rejects the chance that we "reset", then one might not agree with the concept of "resurrection".
Going back to your topic, what would you consider to be "you", is it the physical world evidences such as memories or the vague moving electrons that I could consider "conciousness" from my lack of knowledge

Btw is it good that I completed my magic system for my story by reading @CrusadeAgainstFurries's post?

oh and dude if you are only information. Then if i kill you and then write position of every single atom in your brain on a book then you are still alive. Cause the information is still preserved.
Infact if i make a book which has every single atomic configuration of brain possible in humans. Then that book is more alive than rest of humanity cause it has all the information.

At some point, if people keep using "I think, therefore I am" here, there is a chance that it could devolve/evolve to "solipsism" so I will drop the word here.

For @someonesomeguy, why would it matter? If one rejects the chance that we "reset", then one might not agree with the concept of "resurrection".
Going back to your topic, what would you consider to be "you", is it the physical world evidences such as memories(I meant the brain part that stores them) or the vague moving electrons that I could consider "conciousness" from my lack of knowledge.

Depending on how you answer can determine how you consider us 'dying'

Btw is it good that I completed my magic system for my story by reading @CrusadeAgainstFurries's post?

infact there is no definite way to know if information exists or not.
Because what is information or not depends on the reader.
One can argue that all possible information already exists in the universe.
You just need to measure everything to get all possible humans. You measure each atom and predict each interaction of atom .
So everyone who could be born or is dead is actually alive.

 

[High-in-the-skys]

oh and dude if you are only information. Then if i kill you and then write position of every single atom in your brain on a book then you are still alive. Cause the information is still preserved.
Infact if i make a book which has every single atomic configuration of brain possible in humans. Then that book is more alive than rest of humanity cause it has all the information.

Does that mean you consider something that has all the 'data', no matter what form, as you? Do you just consider something that has your memories or someone with the same configuration of electrons/conciousness as you?

 

[Deleted member 49654]

Welp, I agree that it is related to electrical currents, like everything in the neural system, but why electrons? Physiology looks at a bigger scale - ions, atoms, molecules, and cells or their organelle.

Consciousness and sleep are just forms of neural activity. The functionality of the neural system is related to transporting, sorting, and changing signals generated by certain stimuli and travelling specific complex routes. And this is linked to K/Na ion canals and a bunch of neurotransmitters in the chemical synapses.

 

[someonesomeguy]

Welp, I agree that it is related to electrical currents, like everything in the neural system, but why electrons? Physiology looks at a bigger scale - ions, atoms, molecules, and cells or their organelle.

Consciousness and sleep are just forms of neural activity. The functionality of the neural system is related to transporting, sorting, and changing signals generated by certain stimuli and travelling specific complex routes. And this is linked to K/Na ion canals and a bunch of neurotransmitters in the chemical synapses.

finally some-guy who actually questioned and spotted the real problem in the message.
I don't have any proof for electrons so it is just a guess.
I could be completely wrong.
This is why i said it is my intuition.

but even if it is ions and molecules. Don't they also move through cells and travel through the brain. How do you know the one who wakes up from bed is you. After all the atoms have traveled through the whole brain. Even if they have not traveled through the whole brain . Even if they have just moved in there specific region.
How do you know it is you who wakes up from sleep after the atoms have moved through there parts in brain.

Maybe you die when atoms move in there parts of the brain.

Like one arrangement of atom is you. While other arrangement is clone.

Like atoms moving in cells or cells moving in brain parts. (i don't actually know if cells move in brain so i can't say).

 

[hauntedwritings]

Let me start off by saying that to try to answer what conciousness is, will be a question in a similar league to asking what the meaning of life is (or in my opinion, more difficult). As such, there are two answers, a short and a long one.

Short answer? 42.

Long answer.
Lets start by answering a different question first. How do we define conciousness? As sentience? Intelligence? Self-awareness?
I believe, it's related to decision making.
Plants have some sort of sentience and intelligence, do they not? If they can make their roots grow in a specific direction to find more moisture, then obviously there is some kind of desicion making process involved. Yet many will likely say that plants do not have conciousness.

Now the primary difference perhaps between plants and mamals, is the lack of a neural network. So does that mean that if you have a brain and nerves, you have conciousness? Most likely people will still say no, as the gap in intelligence for different animals is huge.

Well then, we like to say that humans have conciousness. So what is it? The ability to say 'I can think, therefore I am'? That a physical lifeform has a sense of self? This is I think most are hinting. Which is certainly related to the brain.

The answer that it's related to the neural activity in your brain is an easier answer. Even if we can map every thought to their respective neural paths, it won't explain WHY we experience the sensations we do. Source

However, it's known since a couple years ago through experiments that watched neural activity, that desicions are made prior to you being aware of them, by a margin of up to 10 seconds Source. If that is the case for everything we do, then is the counciousness nothing but a mouthpiece for all the collective will of the cells in our bodies? And doesn't that mean that we, the 'people' reading or writing in this thread, don't actually exist?

On a concluding note, I believe it's far too early to discuss this topic and expect a 'true' answer. As we keep seeing new publications made related to neuroscience, we already know that we know little or nothing about it. Compared to classical physics, which today is nothing but reprints.

 

[Deleted member 49654]

Well, this is kinda philosophical - am I still I when I wake up?
I certainly can not answer that question. We will have to burrow too deep into the concept of I itself, which is out of my comfort zone.

To me, a human being is not just a specific configuration of particles or substances. These are just a medium. The movement of chemical substances and electrical signals aids in generating the psyche, but the result is stable. Most likely, this is related to memory. And the memory has a physical substrate in the brain.

The brain activity leads to changes in the synaptic connections between some of the neurons. Imagine building a city. When you learn something new that stays in the form of a deeply rooted memory, a new street or alley is constructed in your brain. Later travelling that new path will bring back the memory. Of course, this is something I have read about long-term memories. I am not so sure about the short-term memory, but there should be ways for its preservation before it is forgotten or engraved in the form of a long-term memory path.

Anyway, I think these personal changes to the brain structure, combined with the storm of current activity generated by the movement of substances and signals make you yourself.

By the way, the state of sleeping is not like you shut down a computer. The computer is still working in the background. There are two types of sleep REM and non-REM, and REM sleep shows activity similar to the state of being awake. Therefore it is best to think of this as a continuous operation and not something temporary switched on and off. REM sleep is related to memorizing, while non-REM is related to the real rest period. It shouldn't be all that different from you daydreaming and not paying attention in class. Yet you are still you even when you are distracted and don't pay attention to the stimuli around you.

About the travelling process: The cells don't move in different parts of the brain. It is a relay. Receptors can generate a signal because of a stimuli over a certain threshold. Then that signal is transported thanks to the polarisation of cell membranes. This process is regulated by ion transport and ion gradients across the membrane. When the signal needs to jump from one cell to another, it is converted from electrical to chemical (this is the so-called chemical synapse, bruh there are electrical synapses as well but nvm that now). By travelling over this long path the signal is modified. Well, that's it basically. Very basically...

Let me start off by saying that to try to answer what conciousness is, will be a question in a similar league to asking what the meaning of life is (or in my opinion, more difficult). As such, there are two answers, a short and a long one.

Short answer? 42.

Long answer.
Lets start by answering a different question first. How do we define conciousness? As sentience? Intelligence? Self-awareness?
I believe, it's related to decision making.
Plants have some sort of sentience and intelligence, do they not? If they can make their roots grow in a specific direction to find more moisture, then obviously there is some kind of desicion making process involved. Yet many will likely say that plants do not have conciousness.

Now the primary difference perhaps between plants and mamals, is the lack of a neural network. So does that mean that if you have a brain and nerves, you have conciousness? Most likely people will still say no, as the gap in intelligence for different animals is huge.

Well then, we like to say that humans have conciousness. So what is it? The ability to say 'I can think, therefore I am'? That a physical lifeform has a sense of self? This is I think most are hinting. Which is certainly related to the brain.

The answer that it's related to the neural activity in your brain is an easier answer. Even if we can map every thought to their respective neural paths, it won't explain WHY we experience the sensations we do. Source

However, it's known since a couple years ago through experiments that watched neural activity, that desicions are made prior to you being aware of them, by a margin of up to 10 seconds Source. If that is the case for everything we do, then is the counciousness nothing but a mouthpiece for all the collective will of the cells in our bodies? And doesn't that mean that we, the 'people' reading or writing in this thread, don't actually exist?

On a concluding note, I believe it's far too early to discuss this topic and expect a 'true' answer. As we keep seeing new publications made related to neuroscience, we already know that we know little or nothing about it. Compared to classical physics, which today is nothing but reprints.

Ah, just about the plants: it is not really a decision making, it is an innate behavioural response - answer to certain stimuli. It includes taxis, tropism, etc.