fernandaguerraellispersson

By Clive,
The compelling question is whether consciousness always is, such that everything that exists has a degree of consciousness, or whether consciousness is a human phenomenon i.e. it has evolved in humans. It could be simply a matter of the accuracy of our definitions - what do we mean when we say something is "conscious"? Does "it" possess a degree of self-organisation, in order to be conscious, for instance? Another term for this is "autopoiesis". This is the cumbersome detail that you are referring to! Elizabet Sahtouris offers an accessible explanation about this subject. I recommended her book "Earthdance: Living Systems in Evolution" on here quite a long time ago.

Trouble is, I read the opposing viewpoint, the materialist viewpoint, such as expressed by Daniel Dennett and find that to be equally persuasive! Having said that, even Dennett has written something along the lines of "humans are now the nervous system of the planet".
But, if we go with a sort of expanded definition of Consciousness, then one ends up with a point made by Tolle, namely, "the brain doesn't create consciousness, consciousness created the brain." Which is a "spiritual viewpoint", I guess, and not that far from deGrasse Tyson's observation. But the phrase "the devil is in the detail" applies here, as well. How far does one go when talking about an underlying intelligence, or life force? What characteristics can we attribute to it?
Your joke about shit isn't far away from the truth, is it? Shit is fertiliser for soil. Micro organisms break it down and the plant uses the nutrients for growth. It is because we are so far away from Nature in our cities that we create such huge amounts of non-recyclable waste. You have written about this before, in your post about the dangers of plastics.
I also wonder what the fxxx I am doing here! But I suspect we all do, at times. I am pretty convinced that this stuff is important. I feel a bit like Richard Dreyfus's character in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". It's important, but I don't know why. I feel like I'm creating meaningless shapes out of mashed potato and I end up being isolated as a result. Until I read deGrasse Tyson's observation, or something similar and I get sufficently inspired to carry on with the Quest. Really, the bottom line is whether or not one thinks that Consciousness is, somehow, driving us to evolve to a deeper, or higher, level of understanding and self-awareness about humans and our relationship to our Planet and the Universe. If so, then we are vehicles for this emergent consciousness. If not, then sure, it looks like a total waste of time, if you don't enjoy the intellectual challenge! We might just as well join the throngs in the malls and the shopping centres and help our economies by spending money that we haven't yet earned. That one really did the trick.