The following words constitute an excerpt from what analysis I provided on a different forum, after receiving an inquiry as to what I think is both requisite for, and characteristic of, consciousness; the result, I think proved itself to be incisive, though perhaps emphasized by too great an extent, the evolutionary and biologic conditions which lead toward its development, as opposed to something of a more general application such as may be rooted in Systems-Theory, and how under the conditions of a certain complexity, and as examined within the latter framework, one finds an emergent pattern of either behavior or action which cannot be accounted for by the individual parts that whatever system is so implicated, consists in alone.

The problem of consciousness does overlap in some aspects with the question of life, because there must always exist in these cases some measure of animacy, of the ability of an organism, a thing, to both grow, and adapt, to respond to its environment and not strictly in a way that may confer an advantage, however much this may be evolutionarily favored; these are prerequisites both for the emergence of life, as generally defined, and consciousness too. However, because we have already defined what life is, what its origins are, and how in particular it first came to arise, with the available evidence pointing largely to that of Abiogenesis, or more commonly known as the so-called Primordial Soup Hypothesis, this part of our quest for better self-understanding may be treated as having been solved already, which thus leaves us to confront the second part of the question; what is consciousness, what are the parameters within which it is constrained, and what exact structures of neural anatomy are required for its development? Now, the most fundamental requirement for this, so far as we know, is that of a capacity for sustaining high-energy expenditures, such that this may be selected for in the face of environmental pressures. A more recent supposition, for instance, which concerns why we as a species within the span of not even a hundred thousand years, a mere blip on geologic time-scales, experienced a sudden increase in cranial volume, despite having been so dominant and therefore free from any intensive selectivity for more evolved traits, at least in comparison to most other life-forms; their argument, was that due to the changing climate during the Last Interglacial Period, when the Megafauna that were once so abundant, especially within the plains of North America, and indeed, were one of our primary food-sources, became ever more isolated, and eventually went extinct, that this scarcity forced us to rely upon much smaller, and more nimble types of prey. This, lead in turn toward a proportionally greater chance of failure, in capturing whatsoever had been intended as such, so as to provide evolution with the incentive to select only for those few examples among our kind with the intelligence to best adapt in the face of this change, and hence leading over successive generations to a greater intelligence because those without this greater ability died off at a far higher rate; presumably, through starvation as well as a corresponding lack of fitness under the new-norm. This emerging theory corresponds to my earlier point on the topic of energy-expenditure, because while a greater brain-mass causes an equal increase in the amount of energy necessary to sustain base-functions, this was offset by the extremes of what conditions under which it developed; which is to say, that the improved chance of success for capturing prey was enough of a benefit to compensate for this increased energy-expenditure, as compared to those without it. The balance of a metabolic equilibrium, and a species’ respective environment, as well as the intersection between these two factors are heavily deciding of whether true consciousness, a higher thought, can ever emerge because of what constraints they impress upon the course of both evolutionary and biologic development. Considering the aforementioned set of facts, there are only so many forms that an advanced species may assume for itself, and thus, in nearly all cases, they conform to a similar anatomical schema, and in addition to which, it is thought revolves around a social cooperative; with any manner of communication, thus demanding a fair degree of cognitive ability to be viable, and thereby adding to the pressure of its selection as a preferred trait when considering those examples which are more socially active. Moreover, there exist a collection of unique neural features in all those species which demonstrate a proper self-awareness, a consciousness both of themselves and others, rather than a strict adherence to a set of pre-programmed behaviors such as may be found in the lesser-evolved. This unique collection that I speak of includes, but isn’t limited to a Frontal Cortex, which broadly, is responsible for the maintenance of higher-order processes such as planning, anticipation of both movement and cause, and in conjunction with the Occipital Lobe, the latter of these being the more encompassing part of the Visual Cortex, allows for object-recognition, and if sufficiently developed, differentiation also on the basis of sight. In a few species, and in particular, those with an advanced power of memory-recall, may even be able to abstract in their recognition of a select object as an example of some more general class, and use this information to their benefit; where applicable, this demonstrates another facet of that which is defining of consciousness, of the capacity not merely to react, but to learn. When taken together, these patterns leave one with a fairly good impression of what consciousness consists in, the means through which it originates, and how it may be defined within its most natural setting.

Though, for the sake of brevity, those equally compelling subjects that correspond to an ethic of Transhumanism, and the viability of creating an Artificial Mind, and more to the point, whether such an entity may even be qualified as in possession of consciousness, or capable of encountering like forms of experience, have all been overlooked; in no way however, does this disallow them each of being entitled to as comprehensive an analysis as I have provided on that broader question to which they relate.