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I have one question that I'd like to know an evolutionist's opinion on. Ok, the most primitive form of life is a single cell. Multi-cellular creatures have cells the specialize in different ways and as a whole act as one large creature. So basically we're made out of billions of lifeforms. Why do we have a cingular consciousness? I know, the brain. But my question is, why does one know they exist? How come when I look at my computer screen I'm consciously aware of the image I'm seeing, why does this image exist at all (even if it is just in my head, per se)? Its one thing for a human to be able to do what a human does, but to be conscious while doing it? In fact, I'd go as far as to say that even with the same brain, humans wouldn't behave exactly the same way without a consciousness. But who knows.





This question goes far beyond evolution and I think it's one of the 10 greatest questions of mankind today.

The behaviorist point of view: Consciousness is an illusion. Our brain produces a model of the outside world, and produces an image of ourselves within this model. This model is required to survive in the jungle, and gives us the illusion of a consciousness.

The materialist point of view: Consciousness (or "the soul") exists. It is a new quality that automatically comes into existence in a complex enough brain able to reflect on itself.

There are other opinions about consciousness, but no particular "evolutionist" opinion as to my knowledge. At the moment all points of view about consciousness are not falsifiable, i.e. they are not scientific. This might change when we have computers complex enough to pass the Turing Test. Then we'll be able to experiment with consciousness and maybe come close to an answer.