The discomfiting continuum of consciousness
Some folks have ethical objections to eating meat, but no one seems to mind savaging a carrot. Why? Both fish and ficus are living organisms, after all. I doubt vegetarians consider taxonomic kingdoms when making moral judgments: the decision comes more intuitively.
Douglas Hofstadter suggests that many are judging the presence of consciousness, a sense of self-hood, “inner light.” He argues that this attribute isn’t just an on–off switch but rather a continuum: humans seem to have a stronger sense of “I” than a dog than a fish than a fly. Your sense of species’ relative positions might be different from mine—I’ll dodge the question of what specifically we’re assessing—but surely you’d place, say, monkeys and ferns in different spots.
Now let’s zoom in on the “human” portion of that spectrum. Does a newborn occupy exactly the same spot as you? Infants don’t recognize themselves in the mirror, don’t appear to reflect upon their experiences, can’t plan, couldn’t pass the Turing test. They’re closer to you than a fish, sure, but how do they compare to a chimp?
Someone recently asked me if I’d ever been to Colorado. I said “yes, but I was nine-ish. Not sentient yet.” My reply was flippant, but it reflects some truth: my “inner life” at that age was far simpler than the one I’ve enjoyed in adulthood. My behavior was almost purely reactive; I integrated facts without understanding; I exhibited limited theory-building or subjunctive thought. I was closer to an “i” than to an “I.”
That made sense: consciousness seems to be a feedback system constantly evolving in response to perception, so it should grow in reach as it consumes more input.
But does our consciousness grow monotonically? Consider the last time you were quite drunk—after all, alcohol is beloved in part because it makes us less self-conscious! Other drugs make their users more self-conscious, while still others move one not exactly towards “I” nor “i”, but sideways into surprising alternative modes of awareness.
So perhaps consciousness grows monotonically when not adulterated by external chemical influences. But then what about internal chemical influences? How did your sense of self respond the last time you stayed up all night? I find (to my great alarm) that if I lose even an hour of sleep, most factors I associate with my consciousness suffer hugely!
Conversely, if I find myself unable to perceive, reflect, analogize, or emote, then a peaceful walk often restores these faculties somewhat.
This is all fairly terrifying: our incredibly intimate sense of self ebbs and flows by the hour with unseen tides. But if it’s going to happen, perhaps at least we can exert some control over it! Can we exploit the “peaceful walk” mechanism not only to restore these sentient faculties but to boost them? Longer-term, could certain hobbies or lifestyles lead to a more powerful sense of self? Which, while we’re introspecting, demands a further meta-question: would that even be desirable or useful?