Okay, I know skipped a great deal of the discussion at hand, but I just need to say something; what is the definition of ‘consciousness’?
So let’s consider this under the scientific method as opposed to wild and fanciful speculations. When one considers any attempts to plot ‘thought’ into patterns, we quickly run into the ideas and concepts of higher dimensions and fractal dimensions–geometric patterns that transcends 3-dimensional spatiality–where we must embed phase spaces into a system to observe any patterns within so-called conscious minds.
Many species of varying ‘intelligence’ and ‘awareness’ have been plotted by way of delay coordinate plotting of such species’ electroencephalographs. Crustaceans, fish, amphibians, dogs, and humans all have showed evidence of fractal attractors and demonstrated increasing fractal dimensions, possibly commensurate with their status in evolutionary development. These fractal attractors can be thought of as ‘never-ending’ spirals wherein a system is in turn effecting its initial conditions through feedback loops and fractal dimensions.
Now–I know–this all seems very complicated, but according to the numbers, crayfish are the lowest forms of life that harbor fractal attractors, and thus consciousness. This is in accordance with evolution in that crayfish can be considered one of the first species to truly require a great deal of sophisticated spacial awareness. Such sophistication developed in to phase space, our geometrically oriented ‘mental framework’ that is limited in its dimensionality.
If one were to plot out the chronology of these species by evolution and their respective fractal awareness, one sees the anemone at 0.0, the crayfish at about 1.5 dimensions, with the dog and human being at around 4.5 to 4.8. What this means is that as evolution progresses, so too does spacial awareness, and–where we, the dog, and other mammals have begun to conquer–time or durational awareness.
We (humans) clock in at about 4.8 dimensions because we have mental phase spaces that operate at 3 spatial dimensions and about 1.8 time dimension(s). This fraction of a dimension, i.e. a fractal, is due to not only our keen memory faculties, but so too our ability to–with logic and deduction–predict the immediate future with some degree of accuracy (e.g. knowing that if a rubber ball falls, it will bounce). As consciousness evolves, so does its dimensional awareness. After all, isn’t our very discussion on the matter of higher dimensions the beginnings of our awareness of it?
If you want to see my source, look here
One intriguing thing is that if one were to see the graph mentioned in the above paragraph (i.e. the fractal-to-evolutionary ranking graph), one might see what seems to be the beginnings of a logarithmic spiral, a highly fractalized geometric shape of which coalesces into an attractor. Now, that isn’t to say it is a “facet of consciousness”–fractal attractors define consciousness, not the other way around. Attractors exist everywhere, especially the weather; but that in no way means that the weather is conscious.
