Consciousness Is Like a Rainbow

Consciousness is like a rainbow in that it occurs from a certain set of conditions. For there to be a rainbow, quite a few conditions ought to be met. Rainbows don’t just spring up all over the place. They are not an inherent residence of matter or of the universe. Rainbows crop up from these instances and not from just anything at all.

The same can be stated for lasers, audio recording, digestion, memory retrieval, and air conditioning. These items do not spring from slender air: They stem from physical structures that are configured to instantiate these individual capabilities, just as the human eye advanced for looking at and the ear evolved for hearing, and eyes cannot hear, and ears cannot see. Similarly, in the analyze of vision, it is well-known that some neural circuits are devoted to specific varieties of perceptual evaluation, this kind of as “edge enhancement” (to detect the boundaries of objects) and motion detection (e.g., the Reichardt detector). Mainly because of their arrangement, the neurons performing motion detection cannot do memory retrieval or songs appreciation, and vice versa.

Consciousness is one more achievement of the brain, instantiated by the actions of nerve cells and how they are configured to instantiate this distinct cognitive phenomenon. And this is the mainstream see: Not all circuits in the brain are connected with consciousness, just as not all elements of a vehicle are linked with, say, the navigational system. The circuitry of the car’s navigational process is unique from that of the transmission.

Consciousness is (in some way) instantiated by neural activities configured to instantiate consciousness. There is overpowering proof that this is the scenario, as is regarded by any anesthesiologist. Not all brain circuits are associated with instantiating consciousness. For illustration, there is overpowering proof that the cerebellum, which has far more neurons than the cortex, is not dependable for instantiating consciousness. All the neurons in the cerebellum do not “do” consciousness. They are wired in incredibly advanced approaches to do other things. There is a thing about the arrangement of the neural circuits linked with consciousness that permits them to instantiate this phenomenon, just as there is something about the elements of a toaster that make a toaster capable of toasting toast. A blender simply cannot toast, and a toaster simply cannot mix.

Analogously, the neurons involved in the pupillary reflex are not concerned in memory retrieval and are not configured to carry out these types of a approach, just as a toaster is not configured to document tunes, and a tv is not configured to make toast. To say that toast “emerges” from the complexity of a toaster does minor to reveal how a toaster will work.

A person who subscribes to panpsychism would disagree with this perspective simply because, in accordance to the panpsychist standpoint, consciousness is a property of all issue. (This is not the regular, mainstream look at of the brain.) From this standpoint, consciousness is not an achievement of the mind it is a freebie furnished (in some way) by the universe and its matter.

A mate of mine who is a panpsychist defined to me that a doorknob is aware. I requested if it is acutely aware in the way that you and I are aware. He reported, “No, it is not.” I then questioned why not, and he replied that it has something to do with our brains. The doorknob has only a form of “proto-consciousness,” and we, since of our mind circuitry, have “real consciousness.”

So the dilemma now becomes, “What is unique about our mind that lets it to generate real consciousness in its place of just proto-consciousness (regardless of what that may well be)?” My pal confessed that we have simply replaced just one secret with a further. In addition, my mate and I agreed that our new concern (what is specific about the brain that can make it “true” conscious) is worthy of resolving and that to resolve it, a person must investigate not the doorknob but a subset of circuits in the brain.