/sci/ - Science & Math

>>16182226
>How much energy does consciousness use?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimally_conscious_state

>>8332983
No, but unless you knock that out first, it's conscious.

Everything you can empirically say about suffering in humans, is present in all the higher mammals (and most birds). From a scientific perspective, animals suffer.

You can't say anything empirical about consciousness, until someone actually defines it. But for the only empirically verifiable definitions we do have (medical and legal), animals pass the test.

Dun mean I'm gonna stop eating burgers though. I mean, if we didn't raise them for food, most of these critters would be extinct.

I'll preemptively throw out there that the common scientific understanding is that it is the net result of the balance between the sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system, the electro-chemical signals fired off by the responses to the environment (even in cases where all stimulus is removed; sensory deprivation, induced coma like states, acute/chronic altered and/or diminished mental status), and the conception of the "self" as self-realization occurs and is processed by the individual.

The commonly shared theological understanding is that "consciousness" is the presence of a soul which is tied to all the choices consciously/unconsciously made by the "self" or individual as they live out there lifespan, which will bring about judgement for the basis of an "afterlife" and how it will be spent.

So what actually is "consciousness" and what is it make of?