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Sample Dissertation

Section 2: What is Consciousness?

Define Cosciousness

When we think of the consciousness, human or otherwise, we invariably are faced with many other abstract thoughts that must also be considered. Vaguely, the consciousness has been described as an "awareness." But, furthermore, on a very simply level, it is connected with thoughts of pain, of suffering, of misery, and on the other end, with thoughts of pleasure, of ecstacy, of euphoria and happiness. However, the consciousness as it exists cannot simply be concludet to these extreme opposites. Our thought processes are hardly linear -- and, if they were, it would take one day to master the study of psychology, which could be simply reduced to a study of "how to tell if someone is happy, how to tell if someone is sad." On the contrary, the consciousness of an individual is capable of so many other emotions, such as fear, intrigue, altruism, greed, hunger, lust, sympathy, ambition, accomplishment, glory, shame, love, hate, etc., etc.. It is, in fact, very impossible to say that there are only two emotions that are diametrically opposed. One might try to justify the belief that these "secondary emotions" arrise simply out of the natural needs and fears of the human mind, i.e. wanting happiness and avoiding misery, but even this is just a different system of categorizing what we already know -- and it proves nothing.

While it may be true that the consciousness, as we understand it, is invariably connected to the abovesaid emotions, I am not making this statement as a sort of psychological investigation. I am stating these things to sort of create a backdrop for a working definition of consciousness -- a working definition that, once formed, will allow us to understand and make accurate thoughts on it.

It goes without saying, that when an author or a writer tries to explain something to another, that they use familiar language and examples. If we were to try to describe the speed of a automobile to a prehistoric individual, we would say that it is capable of going ten to twenty times the speed of a human being. We wouldn't use an analogy involving deep sea creatures, nor would we use an analogy involving technology that was unknown to this prehistoric man. Just as we try to use familiar examples to others when trying to help them understand a concept, we also use the familiarity of a consciousness to try and describe things that are not conscious.

For example, in the case of Natural Selection, we say that "nature chooses" one species to survive over another. It is clearly used metaphorically, as even Charles Darwin commented. Nature is an abstract concept, not conscious, and not capable of choice. But, by using the term "natural selection" and saying that "nature chooses," it helps our listener to understand better. Another example would be in geology. A geology professor would say that once a metal or an ore becomes heated, it "wants" to get rid of this heat, and by understanding this want, we can predict its movements and behavior. But, a metal is not conscious, and therefore cannot want. In another example, we give a warning about potentially explosive material, not to "agitate" it. However, an explosive material cannot become agitated, as our working definition of this word is "to create distress." Since explosive material is not conscious, it cannot be distressed. In a final example, perhaps one of the more common examples, we say that when an atom loses an electron, it "wants" to gain that electron back. An atom is, without saying, not conscious at all, and it is certainly incapable of wanting as a person or an animal would want. We simply use this term "want" when describing unconscious material to help others understand the future behavior of that unconscious material. We say that since it "wants" an electron, it will be "attracted" to other electrons. But, even this term "attracted" is suspect -- for, attraction must be granted as an emotion of the mind: a seeking out of a want in hope of satisfaction.

In most of these examples, the reason why conscious terms were applied was simply to help our listeners gain a better understanding. Why we don't use conscious terms when speaking of other things I cannot say. Perhaps it is that most of those things we use these terms on are very oblivious to us. The atomic theory, and our understanding of heat and cold which is associated with it, is still a very new field to us, and there is much to it that we do not yet comprehend. We definitely do understand the concept of Natural Selection, but it is such a vast field of thought, compromised of ecology and biology. When and how an individual species outlives its competitors in the natural environment is dependent upon so many variables, that it is much simpler to say that "nature chooses" one over the other. But, anyway, I believe I have demonstrated my point of human beings using conscious terms to help others understand.

The question I am first asking, before I endeavor to try and make any conclusions are give any answers, is: What is consciousness? This question is particularly profound, because according to all available information, every living human being is conscious. It seems to be something so obvious, so simple, that when trying to define consciousness, most people have simply made some obscure reference, "you know, you're aware, you're capable of thinking, you can feel," etc., etc.. While it may suffice in the desire to explain what consciousness is, in that the listener in this case understands what that thing "consciousness" is, it still does not answer the question: What is the definition of this thing?

My most natural and immediate response to any question is to come right out and answer, but, no, no, no. That would be too easy in this case. Besides: the subject matter is too complicated. I think I ought to draw one or two hypothetical scenarios before I can answer the question of consciousness. I am going to draw a hypothetical scenario and then ask the reader and myself: is this thing that I am describing a conscious being?

In the programming world, it has been deemed a fool's quest to try and create an actual and real artificial intelligence ("AI"). While this time AI is often used simply to describe a computer's response to human stimulus (such as an opponent in a computer game), on a deeper level it has meant and implied a consciousness. That means, a thinking computer, with capabilities of abstract thought. Not only abstract thought, but that abovesaid somewhat lengthy list of emotions that are accompanied with consciousness. The philosophers of the computer field have asked themselves and their comrades this question: is a computer conscious, or, at what point does a computer become conscious; that we can judge it as conscious? Without much speculation on the topic, I have read somewhere (the origin of which I forget) that a computer can be judged conscious at the point where an individual can carry on a relatively coherent conversation with the computer for at least twenty minutes. Far from being what seemed to be a difficult task, I imagine that with my own limited programming ability, that even I would be able to create such a program that could learn, develop, and change -- in all terms, to evolve. Given enough time, there would no doubt that I, or anyone with elementary programming skills (hhmmm, or maybe advanced programming skills), could accomplish this. Without getting into the technicality of how such a program would be created that could mimic a consciousness, I will say that it is definitely possible, given enough time to produce such a thing. In its advanced form, this computer consciousness would respond to your greetings and perhaps make some abstract thought, such as, "Today's weather is great -- I hope the same is said of tomorrow." Maybe even complimented with humor, "Yes, I know. I cannot feel the heat, but I can read the weather reports."

If a computer program was capable of carrying on a long, coherent conversation with a human being, would we be able to judge it as a conscious entity? While that may in fact be the opinion of some people, I am inclined to respond with a no. Just like the examples I gave of how people try to aid their listeners in understanding, of using conscious emotion to help others understand the behavior of unconscious, animate material, this computer could only be judged to be conscious because of how it acts. It mimics consciousness. The mechanics of a computer, to most lay people, are very mysterious, very hidden, very unknown. Allow me to draw another analogy to help these people more accurately understand this situation of a real thinking AI.

Imagine that there was a device created that acted very much like a computer, except it was based on paper. A series of gears, levers, and belts would be used in conjunction with buttons and pieces of paper. Instead of delivering a response to your input on a monitor screen, it would deliver its response via paper, by writing down its output. Now, through a series of record, inherent program code in this device, you could carry on a twenty minute conversation with this device. You could say, "Hello, how are you today?" and it could respond, "I am fine, thank you. How are you?" It could be created to have a memory, to learn new facts and use these facts in its cognitive processes, and have a sense of pain as well as a sense of pleasure. It could be created to be particularly sensitive to certain topics, particularly those of suffering and misery, just as much as it could be programmed to respond with enthusiasm to certain topics of interest, particularly conversation of technology or the like. Would this device be considered conscious, by the standards of any even mildly educated person? I doubt anyone would grant this device the title of "consciousness." Yet, essentially, what I have above described was precisely the same thing as a computer. In fact, the very first designs for a computer (or an "calculating engine" as Charles Babbage the inventor called it) were based on paper slips that would be used as the computer's memory, or method of recording data. The essential purpose of this slightly more complicated and in-depth analogy was to show that the primary reason why people might grant the above-said modern computer a "consciousness," is rather, based on their lack of understanding of the computer.

So, if we would not grant the original computer a consciousness, then there is no reason to grant the modern computer a consciousness. (Understand, too, that when I am talking about "granting them a consciousness," I am talking about whether we believe or do not believe such entities to be conscious, as we ourselves are conscious.) Of course, needless to say, we must have reasons. What reasons would we not grant a computer consciousness? Well, quite clearly, we do not feel that it is capable of misery or pleasure. It may be admitted that it is true, that the computer does have variables that represent misery and pleasure. Perhaps the programmer coded so that misery was a variable that could be represented between 1 and 100, that would be altered by the text of the conversation, and that pleasure was a variable that was similarly altered. Then, by such a definition, a calculator would be capable of consciousness, simply by possessing the ability of using variables, of increasing and decreasing them. The "consciousness" of a computer, then, was either happy or sad based on a simple variable. The reason that we doubt that the computer can be truly conscious, then, is that the happiness and sadness of our own minds is caused by hundreds of thousands of extremely complex electro-chemical reactions in our own brains -- something that is far from a simple variable. I imagine that we could try to grant similar complexity to the causes of happiness and sadness of the artificial intelligence, but I also doubt that this would do much to remove the lack of consciousness.

It might be an interesting experiment to create such a computer that could adequately mimic the consciousness of an animal. It would be able to sufficiently mimic the processes of learning, memorization, abstract thought, and all those other things that are typically associated with an authentic consciousness. This unconscious computer, capable of acting conscious, would be told that it was unconscious. Either it would deny it with a zealotry comparable to religious fanatics, or it would accept it and be depressed. As I look at this, I understand that our initial reply would be sympathy. These seemingly conscious computers would be reacting in a way that a human would react if we tried to tell them they weren't conscious and we brought evidence of this. We would feel sad, some of us perhaps even withdrawing our claim that the computer was unconscious, and do what we could to cheer up our fellow digital kin. However, we must realize that these computers would be simply responding as though they were conscious. It would just be really convincing. They wouldn't be any more conscious than a piece of paper with a frown face on it. While they may act hurt by our accusations, they couldn't be hurt, because by all our understanding, all our evidence and reasoning, they can only act hurt, but they cannot actually feel hurt.

With all this said, what may we accurately define consciousness as? I've read various dictionaries, and I've found a great deal of people using the term "consciousness" to describe certain things, based on its original definition; the original definition being that "one thing of feeling that every living creature has." I think the most accurate definition that I could compose would be this: consciousness is a sense of feeling, the term feeling to be defined as recognizing stimulus in the natural environment in a way that it produces the emotions of happiness, sadness, or the wide array of emotions. To aid in defining it further, the best thing would be to define such emotions that are produced by this sense of feeling. While it would be difficult and too lengthy to define every emotion in the wide variety of consciousness, I shall stick to the more common ones. Pleasure, or happiness, may accurately be defined as a positive sense given to this sense of feeling, whereas misery, or unhappiness, may accurately be defined as a negative sense given to this sense of feeling. I admit, these definitions may be vague, but they do seem accurate and fitting to the concepts. There is, needless to say, a certain difficulty when it comes to defining consciousness and its facets.

When we want to define something, we usually attribute pre-defined descriptions to it. For example, if we were to define the American flag, using simply words without images, we would say that it was striped red and white for more than ten lines, but the top left quarter was blue and speckled with fifty white stars. All of these words are predefined. We know what striped means. We have a definition for the colors of red and white, though an image is necessary to truly discern the difference. We know what the word "ten" and "lines" mean. We understand terms like "top," "left," "quarter," "speckled," "fifty," "white," and "stars." All of these things are preconceived and preunderstood to the definition of "American flag."

The problem with definitions arrises when we arrive at the process of consciousness. It seems that there are few things that we all commonly know that could be used to define it. We can very simply define things like chair, house, automobile, whiskey, grass, trees, etc., etc., etc.. We define them by using preconceived notions that allow people to organize their thoughts efficiently. Even for things that are not found in the dictionary, such as a new form of abstract art or a new invention, when these are defined by their artists or inventors, they used preconceived ideas to help us understand their creations without ever seeing them; so that we can form a mental image of them in our minds without having experienced them.

We try to define consciousness, and then we run into our first hurdle. This process of consciousness, this sense of feeling, cannot be explained by preconceived ideas. There is nothing already existing in the world that can be used to define it. Granted, yes, we can use words and phrases like "feeling," or "awareness," or "capable of thought," or "able to feel," etc., etc.. However, this doesn't really help create a working definition of consciousness, because these phrases are simply synonyms for the word "conscious." For example, if asked for a definition of the word "automobile," we could say "car or truck," but this doesn't help someone who doesn't know what a car or truck is. It simply provides a synonym for a word that we're endeavoring to define, but doesn't define it. The same can be said when we try to define "consciousness" with words like "feeling" or "awareness." What's the definition of the word feeling or awareness? Essentially, it will probably say something about the consciousness, and it is a loop, without much aid to our cause. Most professors, scholars, and dictionaries, when pressed further about the nature and definition of consciousness, will usually retort with, "That sense of feeling that everyone has."

It seems that there are truly no preconceived ideas that can help us with creating a definition of consciousness. While this may be true, it does not mean that we are unaware of what a consciousness is. In fact, I'm quite sure that every thinking person is well aware of what it is. True, no language can find an adequate definition for it to our liking, but this does not mean that we have no concept of what it is. Before moving on, there are some things that need to be said about our lack of being able to define this absolute necessary term. Since there are no things like consciousness, it must be granted that it is something special (whether it is valuable or worthy is something for ethics to decide). But as individuals endowed with this precious gift, we are all inclined to believe that our consciousness is something that is of utmost value. There is such great value assigned to it, that religions have called their gods "the most uplifted form of consciousness" and every person's personal form of it has been called a spirit or a soul. It has been the subject of so much philosophical discussion (such as this one). And, even, out of a religious or a philosophical level, individuals value their consciousness -- because, without a consciousness, there would be no ability to value anything, nor could any idea or thought ever be composed.

Consciousness is something that everyone has. And, as we all have it, and understand it loosely as a "sense of feeling," we rarely ever say, "It is something I have, but that you probably don't have," or, "I can see you having it, but I doubt that I have it." When asked about the processes of my our mind, we do not respond, "Oh, as an intelligent and thoughtful human being, I understand that this is just pain, a signal to prevent me from danger, and that this is just pleasure, a signal to help me in obtaining food and sex."