When Do We Become Truly Conscious?

slate.com

7 pointsvjanma2 comments

A better question and one that has to be answered before this is: 'What is Consciousness'. Recognising yourself in a mirror seems about as scientific as throwing someone in a pond to see if they are a witch.

It's quite hard to pin consciousness down in the brain. And what is this sleep thing anyway? Are you conscious when you sleep?

Ha - I completely agree. I've been thinking about consciousness a lot lately and I think that trying to find it in the brain will be like peeling the layers of an onion - you won't find anything in there.

I think consciousness might be more like electricity to a toy train. You don't need the train to have electricity, but the train won't work without it.

The feeling of consciousness - the awareness itself - could it make up the universe? Maybe it is something like gravity?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com