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Originally Posted by ForceoftheTruth";p="
That is consciousness as we have it. Animals with only one cell have some level of consciousness.
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That is such an expansive definition of consciousness as to be meaningless. Very few people would consider the consciousness of a single-cell organism to be true consciousness in any meaningful sense.
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Given how human development progresses, it follows that consciousness evolves rather than appears suddenly.
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Possibly. But just because it emerges gradually does not mean that it is present from the beginning.
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Actually, we are all biological machines on a physical level. Consciousness and self-awareness are, for the purposes of science, biological phenomena.
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Agreed. And when the biological underpinnings necessary for consciousness are absent, consciousness cannot be present.
I'll try some other metaphors. One circuit is not a computer. It takes millions of circuits, linked together and coupled to memory, ROM and an electrical supply. A pile of silicon may be a potential computer chip, but it is not a computer chip. A cotton plant is not a shirt.