• Question: What is consciousness?

    Asked by AB+SW to Anais, katy, Lauren, Richard, Stuart on 11 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Lauren Laing

      Lauren Laing answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      consciousness is the state of being aware of and responsive to your surroundings. Right now, as you are reading this you are conscious, if you were unconscious you would be completely unaware of your surroundings, and you would be unable to respond to your surroundings!

    • Photo: Richard Friend

      Richard Friend answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      In addition to Lauren’s answer, I’d say that consciousness is being aware that you are you, not just being awake. A lot of plants react strongly to their but aren’t conscious. I don’t know where the line is drawn, I know some animals can recognise their reflection in the mirror whereas others can’t. It’s a great question that you could probably write entire books about.

    • Photo: Anais Kahve

      Anais Kahve answered on 13 Mar 2016:

      I agree with the other scientists that consciousness is being aware of your surroundings but I also agree with Stuarts comment on where we draw the line. Should the term ‘consciousness’ only be used for humans and animals? Plants can respond to their surroundings but they don’t have a mind so they don’t ‘think’ like humans or animals.

    • Photo: Stuart Atkinson

      Stuart Atkinson answered on 14 Mar 2016:

      Consciousness is being self-aware – that means being aware of your own existence, as Richard says, as well as your surroundings, being able to plan ahead, having some idea of what has gone before, and being able to anticipate the future.

      The whole area of where consciousness can exist is a fascinating one. It seems a good assumption that it has to be associated with a complex structure like the brain (plants don’t have complex central nervous systems like humans, and consequently we don’t see them using iPads). However, can you have consciousness associated with some other complex structure, like a mega-computer? And then even more importantly, if you did have a conscious computer, would it have the same rights as a human being? Would you have the right to turn it off, or would that be murder? There are actually people whose job it is to consider things like this, as computing power approaches that of the human brain.

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