The three great revolutions of life is said to have been the emergence of life, the development of multicellular organisms and the human consciousness, which we are interested in. Consciousness and its emergence is thought of one of the most complex mysteries of modern biology. Researchers have not been able to clarify the mystery of consciousness and even give a satisfactory purpose for it. It has been speculated that, in terms of evolution, it even hasn’t one, but that it came to exist as a by-product of the cerebrum. The development of the brain is a general subject of astonishment to researchers, because the brain seems to deteriorate the possibilities of survival in nature: what sense can therefore be found in the feature (the brain), which limits the ability to quick decisions. This peculiarity has also weakened the researchers belief in the idea of the survival of the fittest. I am not able to demonstrate how the physical or chemical processes in the brain produce consciousness and awareness, but, to a certain extend, to elucidate the mechanisms of human mind on a tangible and comprehensible way. The following statements in this and next posts are based on the idea that one of the basic tasks of the body—and the brains—is to protect a teen by producing him a consciousness. My argument is that consciousness is a shelter and meant for adolescents only.
It goes without saying that the the brain has an impact to consciousness, but it is a different issue what the intelligence means in an evolutionary sense. It seems unlikely that adult modern human individuals would have needed brain capacity any more than the preceding species. The increase of the brain was probably not related to adults at all, but children living in a challenging environment. Is there any grounds to make such an argument? I think there is. Many of our features support the assumption that, in the past, awareness, or consciousness, has been the characteristic of growing individuals only, and after individuals have grown up, it’s lost then. I have already written in the previous posts, that it’s hard to imagine life without consciousness (mind), but it would still be entirely possible. There are many examples of it in our culture, many of them very much appreciated. The basic function and characteristic of consciousness is to construct a predictable world in child’s mind as a consequence of the ignorance they feel. In the very moment of becoming adult—which has happened, and still happens, in a flash—man changed thoroughly his mental form, and note this, it happened to the detriment of intellect and will. We might quite well assume that the gradual increase in brain size, step by step, (encephalization) could be a symptom of the increased importance of adolescence in life course of our ancestors. It may be that mammals had had difficulty in keeping their offspring alive which is why their brains kept increasing. It’s quite acceptable to think that the innate helplessness of the offspring begun already long before the appearance of modern humans on Earth.
And what about the human unique ability of thinking? Does it give an answer to the problem of consciousness? Well, number of scientists and philosophers believe that the ability of thinking makes a person capable to doubt and to a critical and analytical evaluation of stimuli, but it is easy to see that the archaic humans (and why not animals, too) were able to do the same and certainly much faster than the rational modern man thinking and evaluating different options. What matters is unlikely these “abilities” in itself, which in fact are not abilities at all, but the fact that modern human doubts, evaluates and analyzes in a different way than the archaic human. And that his thinking is dominated solely by mechanisms of consciousness.
One need not insist why consciousness wouldn’t be one of life’s great revolutions. I am not arguing against it, bacause it is pointless to argue that the world wouldn’t be different without human consciousness, but is equally wrong to say that consciousness is the very core of our being. Uninitiated, it is difficult to say what kind of physiological and neural structure consciousness actually requires, but it is likely that the developed and human-like consciousness have existed long before the emergence of modern humans. I want to believe that consciousness was familiar to all adolescent (i.e., children and teen) Heidelbergs and Neanderthals and to those unfortunate and occasional individuals who were not able to grow up normally. So, the attempts to find a key to the human mystery only in the special features of consciousness and in this imaginative thing called “human superiority” will inevitably lead to the wrong conclusion.
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