Consciousness is awesome

There are many things in Nature which can justly be regarded as awesome, from the vastness of the Universe and the sheer magnitude of what is out there, to the intricate detail of the structure of the atom, and many things in between. However, surpassing all of these in awesomeness is consciousness. Indeed, if it were not for consciousness then awesomeness would not exist. Meaning itself would cease to be if there were no conscious entities to ascribe it to what is around them.

Closely connected to consciousness is free will, or agency. Without consciousness, there can be no free will although the reverse is possible. Without free will, it would make no sense to speak of concepts such as justice, morality, punishment, purpose, aesthetics or value.

Consciousness underpins all that we are, all that we do and all that we aspire to. However, although it is something which we all experience, it is also something which we know very little about. Perhaps more surprisingly, there is no widely agreed definition of what consciousness actually is [Dietrich 2007]. One definition of consciousness, and the one which I intend to explore, can be summarised in the question “what is it like?”. For instance when we see the sky we not only know that it is blue but we also know what it is like to see the sky. There is a definite experience associated with seeing something blue. Similarly if we hear the note “middle C” then not only can we know (if we are musical) that this is what we are hearing but there is something it is like to hear that tone. Our consciousness has a certain quality to it. This aspect is sometimes called phenomenal consciousness in order to distinguish it from other uses of the word [Block 1997].

This is one of the things which makes us different from a computer or information processing system, no matter how intelligent or complex. A computer could be, and often is, designed to include light and sound sensors. It could then be programmed to recognise when its sensors were pointing to the sky and to respond accordingly, perhaps by saying through a voice synthesiser that “it is a clear sunny day”. Similarly a computer system (or a smartphone) could be designed to respond to being dropped by saying “ouch!”. Nevertheless the question, “what is it like for the computer to experience these things?” is clearly inappropriate. A computer system may contain knowledge, in its disks and memory, and it may be able to process that knowledge based on logical rules. In that sense it could be said to be “aware” of certain knowledge and could be said to have “access” to certain information and to adjust its behaviour in response to its environment. Phenomenal consciousness is not required for any of that. Phenomenal consciousness adds something extra.

What is it about consciousness which makes it fascinating and something worth studying? Consciousness is unlike anything else which can be examined using science, observation or reasoning. It is something not only which we do not know how to explain but it is also something which we cannot even define or easily communicate despite the fact that we all experience it. There is no obvious way to even get a handle on it and yet it is the essence of all that we are. Who knows what doors may be found and unlocked as we explore?