Consciousness

Aug 4, 2001,   Dov in biologicalEvolution forum.

In Scientific American, July 2001, Profile "A Mind for Consciousness" by Julie Wakefield : …"somewhere in the brain…there are certain clusters of neurons that will explain…(consciousness)".

Searching for consciousness by searching for its site(s) or for its functional components in the nervous system is like searching for the forest among the trees of the forest.

As you consider consciousness a (nearly) uniquely human phenomenon you might grasp its nature and its functional composition in terms of the capability to think abstractly. And the capability to think abstractly has most probably evolved in humans as the result of changing posture and living circumstances by their primate forefathers, from forested to wide-horizoned plains.                                                                                                                                               

From Chris Welton, biologicalEvolution:

Consciousness is to individual neurons as a computer generated simulation is to the individual transistors in the computer hardware. It is not the position of the transistors and memory cells that matters, but rather the ever evolving loop of information that is constantly passing through the system. With every loop of the program new unpredictable variables are constantly being constructed and changed.

C Welton