Consciousness is an "emergent property" of the electrochemical activity of neurons. But what exactly is an emergent property?
Let me give an example from organic chemistry for illustration. The enantiomers and stereoisomerism.
Let's consider another example. Photosynthesis, the process by which plants traps the solar energy to make food (sugars). Chlorophyll in a test tube cannot do it, it is done in a plant cell in an organelle called chloroplast, interacting with the environment.
Is photosynthesis a supernatural phenomenon? Obviously not! then why would we need supernatural to explain consciousness?
My friend Surabhi and I had a long intense debate on consciousness back in Orkut days. She came up with the example of the magnetic field. It goes like this when an electric current passes through a wire it creates a magnetic field.
When a carbon atom in the molecule has chirality, the molecule can rotate plane-polarized light and thus we have optical isomers; dextrorotatory and levorotatory. This right here is an Emergent property present at the molecular level and not found in single carbon atom alone.
There can be various other examples, the point is that as we move up the hierarchy i.e. atoms to molecules to cells to tissues to organs to the organism and to the biosphere the emergent properties occur.
Let's consider another example. Photosynthesis, the process by which plants traps the solar energy to make food (sugars). Chlorophyll in a test tube cannot do it, it is done in a plant cell in an organelle called chloroplast, interacting with the environment.
Is photosynthesis a supernatural phenomenon? Obviously not! then why would we need supernatural to explain consciousness?
In my previous blog, 'a post' I explained how various parts of the body including brain works together in a given situation. It's difficult to imagine how consciousness - our thoughts, memories, actions, emotions, understanding, occurs due to the neurochemistry of our brain.
A little by little we have made significant progress understanding how higher functions of our brain work. We understand the effects of physiological injury or anatomical abnormality with respect to specifics of brain areas which alter our conscious experience, from pain to emotions to happiness. We understand neurotransmitters, the role they play. We can observe the effects of pharmacological agents which behave in agonism or antagonism with them.
It would be arrogant for us to think that we could understand everything there is to know about our brain, mind and consciousness. But that doesn't stop the arrogance of people who claim machines will attain consciousness with "Artificial Intelligence". But that's another topic entirely.
But this baseless need to fill in the gaps with supernatural is redundant. People who think they need supernatural to explain consciousness just doesn't stop there. They run wild with it and make up all sorts of paranormal activity crap.
My friend Surabhi and I had a long intense debate on consciousness back in Orkut days. She came up with the example of the magnetic field. It goes like this when an electric current passes through a wire it creates a magnetic field.
This magnetic field is "non-material" itself, but it interacts with the matter, thus she makes a point that consciousness could be "non-material" likewise.
Looking back at it, I think she's right. This phenomenon itself is non-material. And so are other phenomenons I stated above as examples of Emergent Properties.
But this does not contradict the materialistic viewpoint.
