Ask Ethan: How does consciousness physically arise? - Big Think
At a fundamental level, only a few particles and forces govern all of reality. How do their combinations create human consciousness?
The emergence of life from non-life certainly occurred, but we’re still puzzling out precisely how it occurred on our planet. However, the forces of electromagnetism and gravity, given the conditions that arose naturally and the presence of complex molecules, seem to be all that’s required. Similarly, life has survived, thrived, and evolved over billions of years, giving rise to the diverse set of organisms that exists today, including us. As far as we can tell, what makes a “living being” alive is simply the presence of electricity: the flow of electrons. Although there are many with wild ideas about what consciousness is and what its connection to the quantum realm might be, it’s possible — perhaps even likely — that simple electricity (i.e., the flow of electrons throughout a brain and/or nervous system in animals) is enough, given the right external configuration of atoms and molecules, to create the phenomenon we identify as consciousness.
If the laws of physics were so different that we couldn’t have come into existence, we never would have arisen to find these things out. Alas, we only have the one Universe, with the rules and limitations that it possesses, to study. Until we either find another, or discover precisely why and how our Universe has the rules and laws that it does, questions such as “Do the rules that our Universe plays by have a cause or a designer?” will firmly remain outside of the realm of science: beyond what it’s possible to know.
Send in your Ask Ethan questions to startswithabang at gmail dot com!
Shakespeare's Sonnet 151: Love is too young to know what conscience is - Poem Analysis
“Love is too young to know what conscience is; Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?”
In summary:
- Consciousness pertains to our awareness and subjective experiences.
- Conscience relates to our moral judgment and sense of right and wrong.