BothAndBlog Forum

If so, then how is it that a property as fundamental as "consciousness" is so easily and frequently lost (e.g. sleep, head trauma, coma, blackout, etc) as well as altered by commonplace stressors (e.g. drugs, alcohol, sugar, emotions, violence, sex, illness, video games, porn, gambling, social media, etc) if "consciousness is closest to the ultimate ground of existence"? — 180 Proof
It isn't lost. The self is lost. Content is altered, but not consciousness. — bert1

One problem with "Consciousness" is defining what it is. As an abstract noun, the term seems to imply that "C" is a stable physical object, instead of an impermanent process, function, state, or ability. Likewise, the Soul is often imagined as a timeless object, when in fact it is a temporary subjective imaginary concept, that can be turned-off like a light bulb. The brain is a physical machine, whose primary function is to monitor & control the body's life-support processes. That basic operating system (OS) is generally located in the brain stem (the reptile brain), not in the neo-cortex (mammalian brain), where the "movie" of working memory flows.

So, it's not surprising that, when injured, the brain shuts down non-essential (for life) functions. A computer can do the same thing, when a physical malfunction threatens to destroy the whole system. When the threat is over, the system reboots, and functions resume. The information processing ability wasn't "lost", it just temporarily ceased operation. Recovery from a concussion or coma is one example of a biological reboot.

Likewise, the "inmost core of being" is not a real thing, but an ideal abstract concept, created by the brain to represent the Life & Awareness functions of the body. So that "core" is not an Object to be lost, but a Subject to be aware of, or not. The human body's Operating System is essential for Life processes, but not for Mind processes. Therefore, the OS can "shut down" non-essential processes temporarily, without affecting the fundamental operating functions that we call "Life" : also, not a thing, but a process.

What we humans call "Consciousness" seems to be Awareness of working memory. Again, that awareness is not a physical thing, but something like a sampling of ongoing brain processes. So, it's that Self-Reflective Ability that remains to be explained in physical terms. How does the brain produce Ideal representations of reality, that are knowable by the Self, which is also a mind picture created by the brain to represent the body/brain system as a whole?

PS__I'm just riffing here. I'm not an expert on such technical & esoteric questions. Merely an interested User of the Awareness function of my biological computing system. If someone prefers to label that self-image poetically as "The Soul", that's OK with me. The various aspects of Consciousness can only be defined metaphorically, by analogies to physical things or processes, such as Breathing. But, like Life, it's a fragile process that can be "lost" permanently when the energy flow is interrupted by a broken circuit. Too bad, we can't just solder the wires, or replace the battery.


Various Concepts of Consciousness :
The concept of consciousness is notoriously ambiguous. It is important first to make several distinctions and to define related terms. The abstract noun “consciousness” is not often used in the contemporary literature . . .
https://iep.utm.edu/consciousness/

What Makes a Computer Just Suddenly Power Off? :
A PC shutting down suddenly is usually a sign of a power problem and can be extremely frustrating. This can cause you to lose whatever you're working on, but it may also be a sign of damage to the computer itself. Generally, when a computer powers down on its own it's due to the power supply, malware, overheating or driver issues.
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/compute ... 67117.html
Note -- working memory, what you were working on, is lost after a shut-down

As an abstract noun, the term seems to imply that "C" is a stable physical object — Gnomon
...or a property, like redness, roundness. X is red. X is round. X is conscious. — bert1

Yes. Measurable or sensible physical properties are how we identify & distinguish those stable material objects. Unfortunately, physical Properties and metaphysical Qualia are somewhat ambiguous. By definition, a Property is inherent-in or intrinsic-to the thing that "owns" that characteristic*1. A physical property is supposed to be measurable. But sometimes a property is attributed to a thing by the observer, when evidence is unavailable or unclear -- especially subatomic particles. A Quality is a mental abstraction from physical observation. So, we "know" concrete things only by making mental models to represent them.

Before the advent of Quantum physics, people assumed that Redness was a Property of apples. So, our mental images of apples typically include the property/quality of Redness. However, we can make objective measurements of the physical wavelengths of light energy, but we can only make subjective assessments of its color. Color is a Qualia not a Quanta. But, is Consciousness a quantitative Property or merely a qualitative Function*2 of the brain?

Consciousness (or Soul) is obviously not a tangible physical property. So, as a meta-physical quality, it is not measurable in objective units. However, Giulio Tononi's Integrated Information Theory attempts to measure Consciousness indirectly by degree of integration*3. His assumption seems to be that shape-shifting Information is common to both Quanta and Qualia. And my own thesis argues that Energy is merely one form of generic Information, while Matter is another, and Mind is another. Hence the apparent Brain/Mind paradox*4. Can it be explained by Cartesian Dualism or by Russell's Monism*5, or by Enformationism?*6. Is the "Inmost Core" a property or a quality or both?


*1. Properties are the characteristics that enable us to differentiate one material from another. A physical property is an attribute of matter that is independent of its chemical composition.
https://byjus.com/chemistry/properties-of-matter/

*2. What is a Function? :
A function relates an input to an output. ...
https://www.mathsisfun.com › sets › function
Note -- A function is a mathematical Ratio, or a mental Relationship between things; not a thing itself.

*3. Sizing Up Consciousness by Its Bits :
Tononi argues that we could, in theory, measure consciousness in bits as well.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/scie ... sness.html

*4. The Brain/Mind Paradox :
But how does self-conscious awareness arise from physical operations of a material brain? The meat Brain and the ethereal Mind seem to be two completely different kinds of things. So reconciling meat with mind has been called the “hard problem” of philosophy. But it becomes easier if we look at the situation from the cosmic perspective of Enformationism. In that world-view, the fundamental element of our universe is immaterial information, best visualized as the completely abstract form of Logic we call Mathematics, along with its structure-defining geometric ratios. Where the physical brain sees real shapes, the meta-physical mind sees ideal geometry. Yet brain & mind are merely different forms of that creative element. So it shouldn’t be surprising that energy/information flowing through neurons could generate something like a mind-field.
http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page31.html

*5. Russellian Monism :
Russellian monism is a theory in the metaphysics of mind, on which a single set of properties underlies both consciousness and the most basic entities posited by physics.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russellian-monism/

*6. Brain/Mind Enformation :
"The absence of an empirically identifiable meeting point between the non-physical mind (if there is such a thing) and its physical extension has proven problematic to dualism, and many modern philosophers of mind maintain that the mind is not something separate from the body."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind%E2%80%93body_problem