God is in the Neurons

What makes humans conscious?

As mere collections of organic matter, it’s pretty impressive that we’re even able to ask ourselves this question. What is it that makes our power of self awareness possible?
Setting aside the task of defining what consciousness really means, where does it come from?

Here are the options:

1. Humans are not conscious – it’s just an illusion.
2. Consciousness comes from something physical (the brain).
3. Consciousness comes from something non-physical (a soul).

1. Humans are not conscious – it’s just an illusion.
If this is the case, then we immediately run into an apparent contradiction. How is it possible to think about whether you’re conscious without actually being conscious? This is very similar to the argument behind “I think, therefore I am.” Still, I don’t think we can rule it out entirely. Sometimes I look into the mirror and wonder, “Are you really me, or do I just think you are? And if the latter, do I really think you are, or do I just think I think you are?”

2. Consciousness comes from something physical (the brain).
This seems like a simple and obvious answer, but it’s really not. Because if consciousness comes from the brain, then there’s no reason we can’t build a conscious machine simply by replicating the brain with mechanical parts. Sure, we’re currently far from having the technology to interconnect 100 billion artificial neurons with 100 trillion artificial synaptic connections. But technology has improved a lot over the last hundred years. What will happen over the next million?
I wouldn’t be too quick to predict limits on technological progress. When we build semi-intelligent nanobots, won’t they be capable of helping us build more intelligent nanobots? And then won’t it be easy to build a brain far better than what we have now?
Can you imagine a program being truly conscious? Wondering what its life purpose is, whether this external hard drive makes it look too fat, and when it will finally get the right to vote? Moving it to the recycle bin would be kidnapping, and deleting it would be murder. Ridiculous, right?

3. Consciousness comes from something non-physical (a soul).
This would provide a nice answer to the previous question – a program can’t be conscious, because it doesn’t have a soul. Of course, this option comes with its own problems, not the least of which is that it’s a severe violation of Occam’s razor. The absence of supernatural phenomena is the simplest possible explanation, and therefore most likely to be the correct one. Unless, of course, it’s too simple to be possible.
When a car shuts down from a dead battery, you just put in a new one and it comes roaring back to life. Why doesn’t the same thing happen with people? If someone dies from a heart attack, why can’t you just repair their heart (and anything else that may need it) and watch them come back to life?
What part of them has really died, if all their organs are completely intact? Why doesn’t Frankenstein work in real life?  Then again, maybe it does. The real problem with a fatal heart attack is probably that it causes brain death, and nerve cells are not easy to repair. But is this just a matter of technology?
Can we someday inject nanobots into someone’s bloodstream, having programmed them to repair any and all cell damage, and expect the person to live indefinitely in perfect health, not even aging?

Which of these is the right answer? I have no idea but if you like me are fascinated by the workings of the human brain I invite you to view the following:-

Quote of the Day

“If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't.”

Emerson M. Pugh