The Origin of Consciousness: How Did We Become Aware?

Defining and identifying consciousness has been (and still is) a gigantic challenge for scientists and philosophers around the world. We could easily say this battle has lasted millennia, and so far we have settled for the generic explanation, "the state that allows us to be aware of our surroundings and our inner selves". There is also the need to study the relationship between consciousness and intelligence, but today we are going to explore an even more essential point: How did we become conscious? Where did it all begin?

The Origin of Consciousness

Consciousness did not reach its current state as a sudden manifestation. It most likely arose initially from creatures of lesser complexity, and natural selection (applied over hundreds of millions of years) did the heavy lifting. The video published by Kurzgesagt discusses a sequence of microscopic steps, and it focuses on the first one. Technically, consciousness is not necessary for survival, and it gives as an example one of the placozoans, Trichoplax adhaerens, which moves randomly in search of food. If it has food nearby, it moves slower, and when there is nothing in reach, it speeds up. Pure effectiveness, since that way it wastes less time in areas of scarcity... but that does not make it aware of its surroundings.

If we had to think in terms of a "fundamental action" as a starting point for the development of consciousness, the strongest candidate is a combination of energy and movement. The need to satisfy an energy quota through food, and the value of movement to approach that food, or move away from a threat. The video provides another example, Girardia (Dugesia) tigrina. When it is hungry, it moves to search for food using its sense of smell. When it satisfies its appetite, it stays still. That means its behavior and actions are related to its internal physiological state. Smell is a valuable resource, but it has limits, which leads us to higher perception mechanisms. One of the most important is vision, however, it is not enough. When a creature "loses sight" of its food, it needs to generate a representation of its environment that allows it to continue even when its senses detect nothing. In short... memory and permanence. The ability to remember, and recognize that something exists even though you cannot see it.

As expected, the video goes much further (it is the first of a new series). Perception of time, delayed gratification, sense of prevention, anticipation and language development are part of the long chain of consciousness, but if you are only interested in its beginning, it is not a bad idea to think of a hungry bug following a specific direction to find food.