Discussion Title: What is the definition of consciousness?

1. What is the definition of [consciousness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness)?
1.1. Consciousness is the combination of awareness and sentience.
1.1.1. Pro: Sentience is an essential component of consciousness.
1.1.1.1. Con: A robot that passes the Turing test would be regarded as conscious despite lacking sentience.
1.1.2. Pro: Awareness is an essential component of consciousness.
1.1.2.1. Pro: Many [definitions](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consciousness) of consciousness include awareness.
1.1.2.1.1. Con: The agreement of other definitions is not a reliable indicator of correctness.
1.1.2.2. Pro: Many meditation practitioners claim to observe awareness as the totality of conscious experience.
1.1.2.3. Con: Artificial Intelligence exhibits awareness \(e.g. can recognize patterns\) but is not regarded as conscious or semi-conscious.
1.1.3. Pro: There is nothing other than awareness or feeling that we can experience.
1.1.3.1. Con: The complexity of our experience cannot be reduced to only awareness and feeling.
1.1.3.1.1. Pro: There is no empirical way for such a reduction to be done.
1.1.3.1.2. Con: Awareness and feeling can layer infinitely \(I'm aware I enjoy the smell of roses, and I'm aware that I'm aware of this, which makes me happy. I'm aware of the feeling of happiness, which makes me curious. Etc.\), allowing for the illusion of complexity.
1.1.4. Con: Consciousness is a product of information processing that does not require sentience.
1.1.5. Con: Sentience is not separate from awareness, but rather a type of awareness \(awareness of ones sensations\).
1.1.5.1. Con: Feeling something is not the same as being aware of a feeling.
1.2. [Microexperience](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/#evolution): [pansychism](https://www.thefreedictionary.com/panpsychism), or conscious from physical existence, possibly through [quiddites](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russellian-monism/) \(phenomenal consciousness\).
1.2.1. Pro: An information-carrying force \(like the fundamental forces at the molecular level or lower\) that is used for information processing by structures \(like the human body\). Consciousness information gets [preserved](https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/4518-physicists-claim-that-consciousness-lives-in-quantum-state-after-death) on and from a source, which then interacts with and is 'used' by matter, thus influencing its direction and outcome and vice versa in reality.
1.2.1.1. Pro: Like gravity, electromagnetism, the weak and strong forces, consciousness is a fundamental force ubiquitous to reality that allows matter to have experiences and more complex organisms to be conscious aware, concept known as panpsychism.[Podcast on Annaka Harris's book, Conscious.](https://podcastnotes.org/making-sense-with-sam-harris/annaka-harris/)
1.2.1.2. Pro: When one finds what works for them \(that they don't currently have and doesn't have to be right or wrong\) and invests in it for some benefit \(of making them better off than before to grow, like a specific, purposeful outcome\) is infrastructure riding on consciousness's information wave.
1.2.1.2.1. Pro: [Wakefulness](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/#CreCon) falls under this definition.
1.2.1.2.2. Pro: The conception and manifestation of [ideas](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ideas) is an example infrastructure of this consciousness, and the formation and extent of the idea is the amount of it \(and individuals can contribute to supporting and growing it\).
1.2.1.2.2.1. Pro: The amount is also the maximum one can participate in and receive from the consciousness of the idea.
1.2.1.2.3. Pro: This makes consciousness a sort of flow with a start and end that is interactive by externalities/internalities.
1.2.1.2.4. Pro: The starting point is where there's a trigger that starts a person into consciousness - kind of like the 'jolt' to get going from precontemplation to contemplation in the [transtheoretical model](http://www.aaronswansonpt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/TRANSTHEORETICAL-MODEL.jpg), or TTM.
1.2.1.2.4.1. Pro: The [adoption curve](https://s3.amazonaws.com/ceblog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/22225542/Production-adoption-curve.png) can indicate the rate at which one incurs the 'trigger' that starts the conscious process for individuals at a mass scale.
1.2.1.2.5. Pro: This would include panpsychism, as one would put life into something when it comes into use \(as it becomes part of the consciousness at that point\), like 'breathing life into it'.
1.2.1.2.6. Pro: Finding something that works involves a level of awareness and investment involves some capability of doing for a positive purpose.
1.2.1.2.7. Pro: The new finding that works and gets invested in is considered an emergence \([1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence), [2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16W7c0mb-rE)\).
1.2.1.2.7.1. Pro: These findings build upon each other to make new findings, which can create a greater emergence and level of consciousness - which leads to [specialization](https://www.albany.edu/sanestevan/pdf/T%20Hardy%20Yale%20honors%20thesis%20Maya%20Formative%20Ceramic%20Craft%20Specialization%20at%20San%20Estevan.pdf).
1.2.1.3. Pro: Consciousness acts very much like a force, because it travels through the universe and interacts with/is shaped by reality, yet still is able to preserve itself through its interactions.
1.2.1.4. Pro: Consciousness may be a dark matter particle. Evidence for this comes from the [Kogi people](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftFbCwJfs1I) who use the threads of the universe to know about it to connect to it and we now know that the "threads" in the universe are made of [dark matter](https://greatlakesledger.com/2019/02/14/dark-matter-map-spanning-across-10-million-galaxies-created-by-astronomers/). We might connect to this dark matter consciousness particle by allowing it into our brains, as neuron connections[look very similar](http://www.codres.de/2013/01/cosmic-web-vs-brain-neural-network) to these threads to create consciousness within us, so it might flow in the same way.
1.2.1.5. Con: Since our information processing machines have not yet achieved consciousness, we should not assume that consciousness is a product of information processing.
1.2.1.5.1. Con: Humans being unable to recreate consciousness through information processing machines is not reflective of whether consciousness is a product of information processing.
1.2.1.5.2. Pro: Some experts in the field of computer science [claim](https://theconversation.com/why-a-computer-will-never-be-truly-conscious-120644) that our machines will never achieve consciousness.
1.2.1.6. Con: Consciousness only appears to be a force, because when it's around matter, based on how matter reacts to its exposure to consciousness shows its existence. It actually might be something similar to matter instead, as it acts like it.
1.2.2. Pro: [Consciousness](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-consciousness/) is decision-making for producing activities on a daily basis using multiple interpretation steps that involve various biological factors \(like [neuronal mechanisms](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-consciousness/)\).
1.2.2.1. Pro: The sensation of awareness caused by a combination of chemical and electrical signals.
1.3. [Consciousness](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-consciousness/) is everything one can experience.
1.3.1. Pro: Everything a human body picks up through stimuli with senses is what a person experiences, and since every stimuli involves consciousness, consciousness is everything one experiences.
1.4. Just like how dark matter is not matter, but is similar, consciousness may be a matter-like substance that's not matter itself.
1.5. [Mental causation](http://mental causation) or [macroexperience](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/#evolution): combined microexperience \(page 8\).
1.5.1. Pro: Selective awareness of oneself in one's surroundings through the receiving of information in the context of one's signals \(i.e. from senses \(i.e. [sentience](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sentient)\): bodily, technologically, etc.\), logic, etc.\) for decision-making to better oneself in them.
1.5.1.1. Pro: This consciousness is measurable, as the reception and depth of the context could be shown in [levels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_consciousness_%28Esotericism%29)/stages.
1.5.1.1.1. Pro: The receptiveness \(and use of it\) can translate to the level of [intelligence](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intelligence) one has \(and [vice versa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_consciousness_%28Esotericism%29) to some extent\).
1.5.1.1.2. Pro: These levels explain the [pathways](https://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/\@rwang0-5-Levels-of-Artificial-Intelligence-1.png) of artificial intelligence \(AI\), even corresponding/comparing it to [human intelligence](https://chatbotsmagazine.com/artificial-intelligence-ai-and-fintech-part-1-7cae1e67dc13) \(as how much we know shows how much our consciousness can expand into, based on what we're capable of\).
1.5.1.1.2.1. Pro: -> See discussion #31266: AI will become conscious one day.
1.5.1.2. Pro: Consciousness to keep oneself alive \(let's call it 'alive consciousness'\) comes after the [selection stage](https://conteacher.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/infoproc2.gif?w=510) \(where info goes through an [attention filter](https://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/methods/info_processing/)\) in a transition called '[attention](http://phillipsych.weebly.com/uploads/5/1/5/1/51514341/5615408_orig.png)' where it gets received by the working memory. Awareness through the perception \(or [input](https://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/methods/info_processing/)\) stage \(i.e. receiving stimulus\) come before and decision-making/action stages come after, they do not create 'alive consciousness'.
1.5.1.2.1. Con: Just because a brain notified, doesn't mean it's conscious. A brain needs to pick up on the notification \(i.e. be aware of it\) to be conscious of it. This is what I would call an 'attentive' stage, which would come after the notification stage, but before the 'suggestion' stage.
1.5.1.2.2. Pro: We only find out what the brain provides us from perceiving sensory input, due to the [selective filtering of neural input](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-babble/201502/is-how-the-brain-filters-out-unimportant-details) to get to the [selection stage](https://conteacher.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/infoproc2.gif?w=510) to be received for interpretation. Thus, we are not going to be actively conscious of everything that happens around us, even if our neurons are.
1.5.1.2.2.1. Con: Neurons being aware of the environment though does constitute some level of bodily consciousness, but not enough to create a consciousness for an individual themselves \(see the [thalamus section](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-babble/201502/is-how-the-brain-filters-out-unimportant-details) where if that gets damaged, then people fall into a coma\).
1.5.1.2.2.2. Pro: This is why the selective filtering portion of the notification stage leads to [‘inattentional blindness’](https://www.creativehuddle.co.uk/how-your-brain-distorts-reality), where people are only conscious for what the brain tells them about \(i.e. what the brain focuses on\). So consciousness through the notification stage will not include everything happening in reality, even if a person's' neurons pick up on it.
1.5.1.2.3. Pro: Many machines exhibit limited awareness \(sensors, image identification, etc.\), but we would not label them as conscious \(or even semi-conscious\), meaning that something more than awareness is needed for a being to qualify as conscious.
1.5.1.3. Pro: [Collective consciousness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_consciousness) \(like a [hive mind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV7_abwM2ug), [swarm intelligence](http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Swarm_intelligence), [brain](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/you-have-a-hive-mind/), etc.\): collective connection of individual points receiving input from the environment, reacting to it, and letting others know about it if needed, so they could react in their mode too and continue the process until a decision is formed as a whole to address what is happening in the environment.
1.5.1.4. Pro: Awareness lets more pathways for consciousness to expand into, thus building upon itself.
1.5.1.4.1. Pro: The [Kardeshev scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale) is demonstrates mastery \(i.e. level of consciousness\) from a civilization-level energy consumption perspective, where a civilization gets advanced enough to know about an entire system entirely to utilize all of it.
1.5.1.5. Con: Since this definition has not been empirically tested, there is still uncertainty about its correctness.
1.5.1.5.1. Pro: Empirical testing has been shown to yield knowledge and technological advancement, and is therefore a reliable indicator of the accuracy of a hypothesis.
1.5.1.5.2. Con: If one had an algorithm to achieve awareness and an algorithm to achieve sentience, one could empirically test whether consciousness is the combination of awareness and sentience.
1.5.1.5.2.1. Con: One would still need a test to compare the combination of awareness and sentience to consciousness, which would require an objective understanding of consciousness, which bypasses the need for understanding the initial factors.
1.5.1.5.3. Con: Many widely accepted definitions are not empirically testable.
1.5.1.5.3.1. Con: A scientific hypothesis must be testable in some way, and if we are to define consciousness in a scientific way, it must fall back on testability.
1.5.1.5.3.2. Pro: It may be impossible to empirically test consciousness, as David Chalmers argues in the "Hard problem of consciousness" that it will "persist even when the performance of all the relevant functions is explained." [1](http://consc.net/papers/facing.pdf)
1.5.1.5.3.2.1. Pro: According to certain theories, consciousness can either be non-computable \([1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3470100/)\) or will be an unsolvable problem, even if the surrounding factors are understood \([2](http://consc.net/papers/facing.pdf)\).
1.5.1.6. Pro: This follows [Michio Kaku's definition](https://upliftconnect.com/michio-kaku-consciousness/): "consciousness is the number of feedback loops required to create a model of your position in space, with relation to other organisms and time." So the levels of consciousness are based on the number of senses and mechanisms to help in letting one know what's in their reality.
1.5.1.7. Con: Bodily signals may actually be the source of consciousness, rather than their context being fed into the brain to make a decision from it \(as the smallest unit is a cell, and a cell may be conscious even when a person is not\).
1.5.1.8. Pro: Context helps with a living being be guided to what resources they need, without needing background info \(i.e. what, why, and where to look for something\) beforehand to take action.
1.6. A combination of macro- and microexperiences.
1.6.1. Pro: Consciousness is a calculated reaction-attachment \(i.e. [sentient](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/#CreCon)\): being receptive to the external world for processing \(i.e. internalizing\) and understanding what's in it \(i.e. recognition\) to be aware of and be connected \(i.e. responsive\) to it.
1.6.1.1. Pro: It's the concentration of this movement at larger and larger scales through emergence that leads to better utilization, direction, and meeting of consciousness at those levels.
1.6.1.2. Pro: This form of consciousness can be transferred to make others who understand and internalize it utilize it to become better too.
1.6.2. Pro: As per Lamme's model \(see [figure 4](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259249910_Quantized_Visual_Awareness)\): consciousness includes both phenomenal \(activated unconsciously-picked information \(i.e. qualia\)\) and access consciousness \(i.e. 'conscious experience'\).
1.6.2.1. Pro: The storage may involve phenomenal consciousness for [system 1 memory](https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/how-memory-works) and access consciousness in [system 2 memory](https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/how-memory-works).
1.7. Although there is no unanimous scientific consensus as to what consciousness is, there is a growing consensus forming around what is known as “[Representational Qualia Theory](https://canonizer.com/topic/88-Representational-Qualia/6#statement)” \(RQT\). This defines consciousness as computationally-bound elemental physical qualities we are directly aware of, like redness and greenness.
1.7.1. Pro: There is more scientific consensus on [RQT](https://canonizer.com/topic/88-Representational-Qualia/6#statement) than current leading consensus theories, like [IIT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory) and [Global Workspace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_workspace_theory). Thus, this seems to be the most scientifically accepted theory of what consciousness is so far.
1.7.2. Pro: The quality of consciousness can be discovered by not being [“qualia blind”](https://canonizer.com/topic/88-Representational-Qualia/6#statement). These qualities can be quantified \(like, but not limited to, phi “Ф” in ["Integrated Information Theory"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory)\).
1.8. Consciousness is an [illusion](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/#evolution). We are merely a reaction machine.
1.8.1. Pro: An existence due to the capacity of the environment to allow it to happen built through what we value and put our conscious into, but is not actually real \(just a concept. For instance, a line is a mathematical concept, but when drawn on paper from our own consciousness, it's made real by it\).
1.8.1.1. Pro: This form of consciousness, in this case, is an indication of what fate exists at a certain location in space and time.
1.8.1.2. Pro: This aligns with [The Free Dictionary](https://www.thefreedictionary.com/consciousness)'s definition: "A sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group."
1.8.1.3. Con: Reality is an [illusion](https://youtu.be/oYp5XuGYqqY). The only thing we can be sure exists is consciousness as we all experience.
1.8.2. Con: Consciousness is all there is, everything else is a temporary fragmentation of it.
1.8.3. Con: Consciousness is not the illusion, it's the imprints of consciousness on matter that make it appear to be one. Imprints on matter show that consciousness was one time there, but it gives the impression that it's there when someone looks at it, and most likely it's already long gone.
1.9. "[Consciousness is axiomatic](http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/Metaphysics_Consciousness.html)" \(due to Descartes: ''I think therefore I am''\).
1.10. Consciousness is the co-action of memory, rote, comprehension, prerogatives, individuation, and duality to form an [ego](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego), which consists of a self.
1.10.1. Pro: This can even extend towards groups, where it can have a consciousness by acting as one \(like a self, and may even be called that\).