Code & Craft

Self-awareness

All posts tagged Self-awareness by Code & Craft
  • Posted on

    Two things will always amaze me.

    One is the fact that I am here.

    No one has defined what consciousness (No I am not talking about the soul) is but the closest someone has come to explain it is that self-awareness (and therefore consciousness) is an evolutionary trait that gives a creature the ability to plan and execute rather than react to immediate environmental changes. Turns out that there is no seat of self-awareness in the brain. I have an area in the brain that is responsible for my heart rate, vision, hearing and so on for all senses, but consciousness does not have a center in the brain. It comes from an interaction of all these senses. Consciousness is self-arising. Like birds in a flock. No one designs their beautiful patterns; they just arise because of a few simple rules.

    But the fact that I am here, out of a million different possibilities, and all of the histories starting from a single celled organism to Genghis khan have been responsible for me being here boggles my mind. The fact that I waste it away is an entirely different topic.

    The second fact that amazes me is that all of this will end. It will cease to be. There’s a tiny part in my mind that hopes that all of science is wrong and there indeed is a beyond. But the fact that I don’t remember anything from before being here is solid evidence for me that there is no beyond as well. That should make me sad. But in some strange way, it doesn’t.

    As long as I am amidst family and friends who care for me, I have nothing to worry about.