Man has a natural tendency to construct a world view that puts himself in the middle. This is logical. If we look at the observable world, we are in the middle. However, science has already taught us a few lessons and these lessons may lead to modesty.
We used to think we lived on a flat Earth, and Europe (Rome) was in the middle, until we learned the Earth was a sphere, and a sphere doesn't have a middle on the habitable surface. We used to think the Sun circled the Earth until the great "liar" Copernicus told us the Earth circled the Sun. We learned the sun is not in the middle of our galaxy, but at the edge. We used to think the galaxies are moving away from us until we realised the other galaxies see exactly the same from their point of view.
In biology, the same is happening. We already know that we are just one recent branch of a larger collection of humanoids that happened to survive. In biological history, we are not in the middle, we are rather newcomers in life on Earth.
As science also progresses in neurobiology, a new awareness is seizing us: we may not be the only ones who have "consciousness". We have a natural tendency to think we are the only ones, because we can't communicate with other species very well. Moreover, our failure to recognise the consciousness of animals helps us in worrying less about treating them badly or slaughtering them.
Why would an animal not have a consciousness? I think even insects have some sort of consciousness. I learned this while chasing mosquitoes at home. But an even more challenging idea came from a former colleague of mine: how can we be sure an atom doesn't have consciousness? Basically, we are not sure. It is possible. In fact, it is even a great idea...although not verifiable today and therefore it can also be classified as a "flying teapot" idea (Bertrand Russell).
There is an important general caveat with this blog: the title is merely an observation. I don't mean to say that science releases us from our anthropocentrism - on purpose - like if some kind of deity wanted to make us more humble. (Some deities have tried this in the past - it didn't work very well :-))
I also refer to my blog SETI and to my dutch blog Ziel en Lichaam.
3 comments:
Deze blog naar aanleiding van 50 jaar Jan Genoe en de door hem veroorzaakte wetenschappelijke bedrijvigheid ...
When you speculate that an atom could be conscious, do you consider consciousness then as a property existing outside of the material world (e.g. like dark matter versus ordinary matter)? Biologically, consiousness is a product of the nerve system of a living creature, I thought...
I see consciousness like software. It can run on multiple types of hardware. The existence of consciousness in an atom would therefore require some substructure within the atom. But I'm not really (not longer) a believer in a completely immaterial 'soul' that could live without matter. But I admit all this speculation is more suited for the pub than for the lab... We should do that some time.
Post a Comment