Towards a Possible Definition of Consciousness

Abstract

There is no consensus about what cognition and its emergent form, consciousness, are. Yet this article proposes a new definition of consciousness. As many researchers, philosophers and other thinkers believe that life means cognising, this new definition of consciousness stems from a generalisation of the existing definition of life which postulates that Life is a far from equilibrium self-maintaining chemical system capable of processing, transforming, and accumulating information acquired from the environment. The new definition includes the thermodynamical aspect as a far from equilibrium system and considers the flow of information from the environment to a conscious system. The new definition of consciousness presented herein is formulated in a minimal manner; simultaneously, it is general enough to cover all emergent forms of cognition, e.g. thinking and rationality. The newly formulated definition states that Consciousness is an emergent property of a far from equilibrium system of quantum particles sustained by an autopoietic system and capable of processing, transforming, and accumulating information acquired from the environment. The newly proposed definition of consciousness may be of interest to cognitive and computer sciences – and even to the development of artificial intelligence. Furthermore, it presents a possible solution to Chalmers’ hard problem of consciousness. This article discusses a possible generalisation by introducing quantum particles to the definition of life stated herein, refining it into a broader concept: Life is a far from equilibrium self-maintaining system of quantum particles capable of processing, transforming, and accumulating information acquired from the environment.