Conciousness

What is Conciousness? I have this discussion a lot with my friends..

we are trying to understand the unity of the brain,

what makes us concious creatures?

What is conciousness? is it a unity/something non-material? or is it the activity of all the parts of the brain at specific moment in time?

why do we feel? (we know its just a reaction in the brain happening, but what is really 'feeling'? like if we replicate that reaction (e.g. transmitter+neuron, outside the body everything happens the same but there is no such thing as a feeling happening))

Do you think it's something that is explainable on a materialistic level but we just don't have the knowledge for it yet?

Or do you people believe in something else like dualism/a spirt/a control/etc

really interested in hearing other opinions on this matter.

 

I am starting to read Godel Escher Bach, and by starting to read I mean I have made it over half way through the quite lengthy introduction, and this book covers what is I, the self, awareness, what gives rise to consciousness. The book is well over 700 pages long, and is dense - I mean almost to the point of being difficult to read. If you're really interested look up the book. It is well worth the $25 I paid for it so far and I really hope delve into it deeper, but it will be a long read and probably will be the subject of numerous rereads before I can scratch the surface of the authors arguments concerning the Godel Incompleteness theorem and how it relate to everything.

 

Some argues that consciousness begins somewhere when we are at about 3 years old, when our brain and senses can understand what happens all around us. That's usually the earliest point of time most of us can remember till.

Others argues that consciousness begins right when our brain is still developing in the womb. But one thing is certain, consciousness is in the brain.

Religious people may link this consciousness to the spiritual world which seems to ascertain that our consciousness is given by higher beings to try to understand them.

Science can only go as far as observing the atoms and Nero-activity in the brain in explaining this other spiritual world. What Science can observes are just matters that manifest in the presence of this other world.

We just don't got the technology to investigate anything spiritual yet. Maybe we could by first proving that there are different dimensions by the quantum theory. That's our first step to answering deeper questions, and Scientist have proposed at least 11 dimensions using this theory.

 

sounds really good, definetly gonna take a look at it.