Return to Answer

We know from neuroscience that there are many unconscious processes operating in the human brain. It is even possible that a stimulus is registered in certain parts of our brain, but we do not have a consciuosness perception. Neverless, the stimulus can influence our action. See for an introduction to this field.

The necessary requirement that mental processes become conscious: The excitation has to pass the thalamus, more precisely: These processes have to activate the thalamo-cortical system.

• Hence there is no reason to speculate that non-living natural systems have consciousness. They do not even have neurons for information processing.
• Concerning artificial systems like networks of computers one cannot exclude that one day they evolve to the level of consciousness.

If one likes to apply the term “emergent” to any system which shows more properties than the sum of its components, one may call consciousness an emergent phenomenon. Because it presupposes the forward and backward activation between the subsystems of the thalamo-cortical system.

For the whole question see also the previous similar question.

We know from neuroscience that there are many unconscious processes operating in the human brain. It is even possible that a stimulus is registered in certain parts of our brain, but we do not have a consciuosness perception. Neverless, the stimulus can influence our action. See for an introduction to this field.

The necessary requirement that mental processes become conscious: The excitation has to pass the thalamus, more precisely: These processes have to activate the thalamo-cortical system.

• Hence there is no reason to speculate that non-living natural systems have consciousness. They do not even have neurons for information processing.
• Concerning artificial systems like networks of computers one cannot exclude that one day they evolve to the level of consciousness.

If one likes to apply the term “emergent” to any system which shows more properties than the sum of its components, one may call consciousness an emergent phenomenon. Because it presupposes the forward and backward activation between the subsystems of the thalamo-cortical system.

For the whole question see also a previous similar question.

Added: Presently an adversarial experimental study is on the way to distinguish between the predictions made by two competing theories to explain the relationship between conscious experience and brain activity. The study employs as working definition for consciousness:

“Phenomenologically, consciousness has been defined as subjective experience (or what it is like to perceive, feel, act or think from a first-person perspective).”

We know from neuroscience that there are many unconscious processes operating in the human brain. It is even possible that a stimulus is registered in certain parts of our brain, but we do not have a consciuosness perception. Neverless, the stimulus can influence our action. See for an introduction to this field.

The necessary requirement that mental processes become conscious: The excitation has to pass the thalamus, more precisely: These processes have to activate the thalamo-cortical system.

• Hence there is no reason to speculate that non-living natural systems have consciousness. They do not even have neurons for information processing.
• Concerning artificial systems like networks of computers one cannot exclude that one day they evolve to the level of consciousness.

If one likes to apply the term “emergent” to any system which shows more properties than the sum of its components, one may call consciousness an emergent phenomenon. Because it presupposes the forward and backward activation between the subsystems of the thalamo-cortical system.

We know from neuroscience that there are many unconscious processes operating in the human brain. It is even possible that a stimulus is registered in certain parts of our brain, but we do not have a consciuosness perception. Neverless, the stimulus can influence our action. See for an introduction to this field.

The necessary requirement that mental processes become conscious: The excitation has to pass the thalamus, more precisely: These processes have to activate the thalamo-cortical system.

• Hence there is no reason to speculate that non-living natural systems have consciousness. They do not even have neurons for information processing.
• Concerning artificial systems like networks of computers one cannot exclude that one day they evolve to the level of consciousness.

If one likes to apply the term “emergent” to any system which shows more properties than the sum of its components, one may call consciousness an emergent phenomenon. Because it presupposes the forward and backward activation between the subsystems of the thalamo-cortical system.

For the whole question see also the previous similar question.

We know from neuroscience that there are many unconscious processes operating in the human brain. It is even possible that a stimulus is registered in certain parts of our brain, but we do not have a consciuosness perception. Neverless, the stimulus can influence our action. See for an introduction to this field.

The necessary requirement that mental processes become conscious: The excitation has to pass the thalamus, more precisely: These processes have to activate the thalamo-cortical system.

• Hence there is no reason to speculate that non-living natural systems have consciousness. They do not even have neurons for information processing.
• Concerning artificial systems like networks of computers one cannot exclude that one day they evolve to the level of consciousness.

If one likes to apply the term “emergent” to any system which shows more properties than the sum of its components, one may call consciousness an emergent phenomenon. Because it presupposes the forward and backward activation between the subsystems of the thalamo-cortical systems.

We know from neuroscience that there are many unconscious processes operating in the human brain. It is even possible that a stimulus is registered in certain parts of our brain, but we do not have a consciuosness perception. Neverless, the stimulus can influence our action. See for an introduction to this field.

The necessary requirement that mental processes become conscious: The excitation has to pass the thalamus, more precisely: These processes have to activate the thalamo-cortical system.

• Hence there is no reason to speculate that non-living natural systems have consciousness. They do not even have neurons for information processing.
• Concerning artificial systems like networks of computers one cannot exclude that one day they evolve to the level of consciousness.

If one likes to apply the term “emergent” to any system which shows more properties than the sum of its components, one may call consciousness an emergent phenomenon. Because it presupposes the forward and backward activation between the subsystems of the thalamo-cortical system.