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If plants are conscious, then it stands to reason to assume every life form is conscious -> a bacterium is conscious -> any cell in our body is conscious. I tri
by resource0x 4y ago
If plants are conscious, then it stands to reason to assume every life form is conscious -> a bacterium is conscious -> any cell in our body is conscious.
I tried to google "single cell consciousness" and found a few articles that briefly touch on the idea.
But then it doesn't take a leap of imagination to conjecture that my own consciousness is in fact the consciousness of a single "special" cell. It might be located in the brain, but not necessarily.
- TrispusAttucks 4y agoIf you find this fascinating then [1] Panpsychis may be a fun hole for you to go down. Basically consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism
- edgyquant 4y agoI think that scientifically speaking this is a step too far. It makes sense for a cell to have developed awareness, it doesn’t make sense for a rock to be consciousness fundamentally speaking; or at least doesn’t seem falsifiable ever.
- resource0x 4y agoI know, panpsychism is a logical next step, but we are very far away from being able to study the consciousness of the atom. A bacterium could be a simpler target of practical research. There's a lot of "intelligence" in the living organisms, which potentially can be utilized and eventually lead to a real AGI.
- akomtu 4y agoToday, the science practices double-think: on the one hand it claims that the entire universe is one big wave function that evolves as one and can't be split into parts, but on the other hand it would call you a heretic if you use this wave function reasoning to claim a connection to a plant or, worse, to a rock.
- edgyquant 4y agoYea cells probably do know they are a thing but is that really consciousness or should we call it “awareness.” Your own consciousness is likely a combination of this or even what you experience as sentience is the swapping of attention between these different cells that point to trees of thought. This is at least what I’ve come to believe after meditation.
- resource0x 4y agoSuppose my consciousness is localized in a single neuron. This neuron is connected to thousands of other neurons, each of which is connected to... etc, so the "me"-cell indirectly receives inputs from the entire body. The swapping of attention, as well as any other effect you can think of, could conceivably be implemented by a "me"-cell alone, just based on the interplay of inputs.
- superb-owl 4y agoI've never fully understood his thinking, but I think that's basically Daniel Dennett's argument in From Bacteria to Bach and Back [1]. He makes it while somehow simultaneously denying panpsychism and the reality of consciousness itself. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Bacteria_to_Bach_and_Back https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Bacteria_to_Bach_and_Back
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- skybrian 4y agoIt seems awfully fragile. What happens if that cell dies? Do you turn into a p-zombie? :) Scientists have been studying brain damage for a long time, and it seems pretty clear that minds are more distributed than that. Oliver Sacks wrote a lot about this sort of thing.
- resource0x 4y agoI don't know what happens if that cell dies. The person may die. Or another neuron may take over (e.g. after coma). But under the new management, the person won't be the same as before. This is not something unheard-of. There are precedents. There are some neurons that control muscles. If the neuron dies, the brain loses control over this muscle. There's no regeneration, and no other neuron takes over.
- broast 4y agoI'm a fan of the thousand brain theory of consciousness. Something like our consciousness is the experience of a democratic voting process involving all the cells in our body.
- Zurrrrr 4y agoWhy are you a fan? It seems to be unsubstantiated speculation.
- grosswait 4y agoAll theories on consciousness are unproven, but some feel right to the individual.
- canadaduane 4y agoYou can be excited about an idea or cause independent of its substantiation. I'd argue that fandom is actually really healthy and needed--sometimes our intuition about a concept, coupled with our excitement (even fanaticism!) is the energy necessary to do what it takes to prove or disprove what is at first wild speculation.