In recent conversations, I was confronted with, I confess an unexpected argument. Namely, that just like a living body contains something that a dead body does not (Consciousness), a dead body contains something that a living body does not. Therefore, what is so special about the extra thing possessed by the living body.
This is so fully true, that it forced me, to put in words what I didn’t think I could. Along with that, I had to put it as rigorously as possible, considering that the sharp intellect with whom I was conversing, would pick out flaws. Here was my reply.
Assuming that there are two (ideally) identical human bodies, in the same position next to each other, one of which has just died.
1. The dead body “has” a set of set of things that the living body does not. This set could be anything from sulfurous gases, to rate of change of temperature, to the sum of the velocity vectors of the particles of blood (No longer propelled by the heart). And so on and so forth. Shall we call this set A?
2. The living body, apart from the obvious physical differences, has Consciousness as well. Since we are not interested in the physical differences (Even though a subset of those physical differences is responsible for the consciousness), we shall only look at the Consciousness part of it.
I am assuming here, that you believe that consciousness is a property as well. No doubt you can say, that it is a result of other properties, but since I can divide the whole world into two sets viz. Conscious, and Unconscious, Set theory allows me the luxury of treating Consciousness as an attribute in itself. At the worst case, we can break consciousness down into into its physical component parts, and call it Set B. But I think you may agree that it’s not necessary. The fact that that we cannot always detect Consciousness is a failing of the experimenter, and not a failing of the system.
So here we are, with set A on one hand, and Consciousness on the other. My task, to show the unique attributes of Consciousness with regard to set A.
I can approach the problem from several angles. I can show that Consciousness requires a constant input of Useful energy turning into waste energy (a la Clausius), whereas set A has no such requirement. Namely the Entropy angle.
I can say that Consciousness is far rarer than anything set A can have, thereby making it unique.
Perhaps I can come up with others, but none of these form the real reasons why consciousness is special to me.
I must admit that I’m having some difficulty choosing my words here. I’ll explain what I want to say, and hope you get the gist without laying excess stress on definitions.
Consciousness feels. Consciousness cares. It is an observer. Even if it possesses no senses, it is an observer. This is strange indeed. A man who suddenly becomes blind, deaf, tasteless, scentless, and cannot feel, is STILL an observer. Of himself. Is still aware. Aware of what you may ask? I can say aware of himself, but that will not be the whole truth. He will be AWARE. Period.
Perhaps most importantly, he has an identity. He is the only thing that can say “I am me, and the universe is not me”, when logically everything is part of the universe.
I cannot truly believe however, that you cannot see that consciousness is fundamentally different from anything that set A can produce. You and I both know that you can break down consciousness into another set of physical states, none of which are special. But what can I say? The whole is greater than the some of it’s parts! This particular set of physical states has produced something so unique, that it has revealed a new dimension of the universe.
Consciousness is a new thing that the universe has never seen before. Never thought it could see. I doubt if God himself (Though he probably doesn’t exist) could have ever visualized something like this. The chances of evolution have brought about something so spectacular, that it is a matter of great regret that the universe itself is dead, and cannot see it. Consciousness is the universe knowing itself. In spite of all our physical insignificance, we are like Gods, surveying the rest of creation, looking and passing judgment on it.