Matter/energy/space exist.
Life ‘eats’ matter&energy and structures space.
Mind makes sense of things and notices the flow of time.
Matter/energy/space exists on its own. Doesn’t need any ‘outside intervention’ to ‘do its thing’. The ‘rules of engagement’ which ‘govern’ the interactions which happen at this level are embedded in its own nature. Consistent across the entire space and invariable in time.
Life, as a phenomenon, ‘takes place’. On a temporary basis.
Builds its own space, according to species specific rules carried over from generation to generation and fine tuned as needed.
Each individual organism, while alive, defines an ‘interior’ space. Somehow manages to keep the ‘inside’ in and to control the ‘inputs’ and the ‘outputs’.
Plants stay put. Fungi follow suit. Both move only when carried by external agents/forces.
Animals lead a more active life. They move around on their own steam, most of them, ‘attempting’ to enhance their chances of survival.
More complicated animals have developed a ‘nervous system’. Higher up on the evolutionary ladder, that nervous system has developed a brain.
By keeping their insides in and by controlling what goes in and out through the ‘membrane’ separating the inside space from the their environment living organisms ‘behave’ as if being ‘conscious’. They do more than merely exist – like matter/energy/space. They react to what’s going on around them. They actively interact with their environment and with each-other. The species they belong to evolve, as a reaction to what’s going on in the environment where they live.
The advent of ‘brain’ have allowed the animals yielding this organ to refine the notion of consciousness. To learn and remember more and more. To react more effectively to change, at the individual level. To increase the individual survival chances of those having more elaborate brains.
Humans have reached the next level.
Their consciousness has become sophisticated enough to ‘turn tables’.
The ‘less sophisticated’ brains of the ‘lesser’ animals work ‘as intended’. More or less linearly. The brain serves the interests of the organism, no further questions asked. No doubts, no qualms, no ‘insider tradings’.
The ‘conscious human brain’ is a totally different ‘can of worms’. Pun intended.
Conscious humans are aware of their own consciousness. The other living organisms act as if they were conscious, of sorts. The animals even more so. The higher on the the evolutionary ladder, the more convincingly their apparently conscient behaviour.
But none of them, bar humans themselves, seem to be aware of their own consciousness. None of them seem to have doubts! Second thoughts. None of them act ‘indecisively’ without due cause.
Humans are the first who have developed a conscience sophisticated enough to sow doubt.
‘Developed’ versus ‘evolved’.
Animal conscience is a consequence of mere evolution. Human conscience is a work in process. Animals do learn and some of them are able to pass knowledge to the next generation at the individual level. But animal conscience is a given. An individual organism, animals included, raised in complete solitude will function. Not exactly ‘as intended’ but… The more evolved animals do depend on the previous generation for the initial ‘push forward’ but their parents can be substituted. By other animals – cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, for example – or by experimenting people. But human children raised by other than caring (foster) parents will never properly develop their consciousness.
Living organisms behaving as if they know what they’re doing is a consequence of evolution. Humans behaving consciously is a consequence of development. Living organisms depend mostly on information genetically deposited in their DNA/RNA while humans depend on information culturally stored in their traditions in order to accede to humanness. Without it, they remain mere apes.
Having doubts AND depending on others is a recipe for disaster.
Animals, living organisms in general, depend on each other but they’re not aware of this fact. Hence they have no doubts about it. About anything, really.
Humans depend on each other while being aware of their dependency. On their dependency on everything, actually. From the Sun rising tomorrow morning to the next person not trying to rob them. And on everything else in between.
To quell their qualms, to prevent despondency, people need to deal with incertitude.
They actually need to make ‘sense of things’. To spin a story.
About what had happened before their birth and about what may happen if they ‘do the right thing’.
The human brain needs to do more than balance the body while walking. More than telling the body what to do in order to find food/water/shelter. More than juggling, like all other brains, the internal clockwork of the animal body.
The human brain, the mind operating it, must reassure the individual conscience that the next day will be worth living.
And, in doing so, to contribute to the development of the human race.
