What exactly is consciousness and how it is generated? How and why it exists and what’s the ultimate cause of consciousness?
These are some major question that scientists
are looking for their answers. In today’s world the mystery of consciousness is
a challenge for physicists, cognitive scientists, and neuro-scientists.
There are
few theories that try to explain the consciousness. One of the most accepted
theory is materialism. This theory says that consciousness is generated by matter i.e. by the firing of neurons inside the brain.
The second
theory is mind-body duality. This is probably more often known as religion or
spirituality. Here, consciousness is distinct from matter. It is a part of
alternative characteristic of the individual, which in religious expression we
might call the soul. Then there’s a third option which is gaining ground in
some scientific society, Panpsychism. According to this theory, the entire
universe is occupied by consciousness. Panpsychism is currently a matter of
great debate among physicists, neuroscientists and other researchers.
One must
come to the understanding at some point during this debate that everything we
experience is strained through and interpreted by our mind. Without it, the
cosmos doesn’t exist at all or at least, not without some type of consciousness
witnessing it. In some physics circles, the dominant theory is some kind of
proto-consciousness field.
So let’s get
scientific here and move towards quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics,
particles don’t have a certain shape or precise location, until they are
observed or measured. Is this a system of proto-consciousness at play?
According to
the late physicist and philosopher, John Archibald Wheeler, it might. He's
well-known for inventing the term, "black hole." In his opinion,
every part of matter comprises a bit of consciousness, which it rivets from
this proto-consciousness field.
He called
his theory the “participatory anthropic principle,” which posits1 that a human
observer is key to the process.
Of this Wheeler said:
“We are participators in bringing into being not only the near and here but the far away and long ago.”
In his view,
much like the Buddhist one, nothing exists unless there is a consciousness to
apprehend it. Neuroscientist Christof Koch of the Allen Institute for Brain
Science, is another supporter of panpsychism. Koch says that the only theory we
have to date about consciousness is, it’s a level of awareness about one’s self
and the world. Biological organisms are conscious because when they approach a
new situation, they can change their behavior in order to navigate it, in this
view. Dr. Koch is attempting to see if he can measure the level of
consciousness an organism contains.
He’ll be
running some animal experiments. In one, he plans to wire the brains of two
mice together. Will information eventually flow between the two? Will their
consciousness at some point become one fused, integrated system? If these
experiments are successful, he may wire up the brains of two humans.
UK physicist
Sir Roger Penrose is yet another supporter of panpsychism. Penrose in the 80’s
proposed that consciousness is present at the quantum level and resides in the
synapses of the brain. He is famous for linking consciousness with some of the
goings on in quantum mechanics.
Dr. Penrose
doesn’t go so far as to call himself a panpsychist. In his view:
“The laws of physics produce complex systems, and these complex systems lead to consciousness, which then produces mathematics, which can then encode in a succinct and inspiring way the very underlying laws of physics that gave rise to it.”
Veteran
physicist Gregory Matloff of the New York City College of Technology, says he
has some preliminary evidence showing that, at the very least, panpsychism
isn’t impossible. Hey, it’s a start.
Dr. Matloff told NBC News:
“It’s all very speculative, but it’s something we can check and either validate or falsify.”
Theoretical
physicist Bernard Haisch, in 2006, suggested that consciousness is produced and
transmitted through the quantum vacuum, or empty space. Any system that has
sufficient complexity and creates a certain level of energy, could generate or
broadcast consciousness. Dr. Matloff got in touch with the unorthodox, German
physicist and proposed an observational study, to test it.
What they
examined was Parenago’s Discontinuity. This is the observation that cooler
stars, like our own sun, revolve around the center of the Milky Way faster than
hotter ones. Some scientists attribute this to interactions with gas clouds.
Matloff took a different view. He elaborated in a recently published piece, in
the Journal of Consciousness Exploration and Research.
Unlike their
hotter sisters, cooler stars may move faster due to “the emission of a
uni-directional jet.” Such stars emit a jet early on in their creation. Matloff
suggests that this could be an instance of the star consciously manipulating
itself, in order to gain speed.
Observational
data shows a reliable pattern anywhere Parenago’s Discontinuity is witnessed.
If it were a matter of interacting with gas clouds, as is the current theory,
each cloud should have a different chemical makeup, and so cause the star to
operate differently. So why do all of them act in exactly the same way?
Though it
isn’t much to go on, the unveiling of the European Space Agency’s Gaia space
telescope, whose mission it is to map stars, may provide more data to further
support or weaken this view. On another front, Dr. Matloff posits that the
presence of a proto-consciousness field could serve as a replacement for dark
matter.
Dark matter
supposedly makes up around 95% of the universe, although, scientists can’t seem
to find any. So, for the sake of argument, if consciousness is a property that
arises on the subatomic level with a confluence of particles, how do these tiny
little bits of consciousness coalesce?
Neuroscientist
and psychiatrist Giulio Tononi, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
proposes a slightly different take on panpsychism, called integrated
information theory. Here, consciousness is a manifestation with a real,
physical location, somewhere in the universe. We just haven’t found it yet.
Perhaps this heavenly body radiates out consciousness as our sun radiates light
and heat.
Dr. Tononi
has actually puts forth a metric for measuring how much consciousness a thing
has. The unit is called phi. This translates into how much control a being can
enact over itself or objects around it. The theory separates intelligence from
consciousness, which some people assume are one in the same.
Take AI for
example. It can already beat humans in all kinds of tasks. But it has no will
of its own. A supercomputer which can enact change in the world outside of a
programmer’s commands, would therefore be conscious. Many futurists from Ray
Kurzweil to Elon Musk believe that day is coming, perhaps in the next decade or
so, and that we should prepare.
