I read some of your other ones, and I think you should be careful around the difference between intelligence and consciousness. They are not the same and various levels of intelligence seem possible without consciousness. A great (fictional) example is Blindsight. An ant colony may behave intelligently without being conscious. Although this leads into the question whether intelligent reaction to the environment is even possible without some level of self-model and self-awareness - that is consciousness.
I agree that consciousness and intelligence are not the same thing but I do think they are highly correlated. I think we could agree that a greater consciousness is capable of higher intelligence (i.e. a human brain vs. an ant brain, or even a human brain vs. something not typically understood as conscious like a rock). The creature exhibiting higher consciousness is also more intelligent. I think demonstration of highly intelligent behavior thus suggests (though does not prove) consciousness.
As for consciousness itself, I think it is rooted in the process of information exchange, which is why more complex networks produce higher expressions of consciousness. A more complex network with more interconnected nodes will have a higher proportion of information exchange taking place within the network, yielding the higher order consciousness.
In this, it becomes natural to take the panpsychist view where consciousness is simply a property of all being, because there is always information exchange happening of some kind. There is thus no line where one has to draw a barrier between conscious and unconscious matter. Consciousness is simply allowed to scale up in richness as the information exchange network expands into more complex arrangements. This strikes me as much more natural than the typical assumptions around consciousness. But a consequence of accepting this view is that consciousness does not have to be a classically biological phenomenon. Any network, whether firmly embodied or not, logically produces a higher-order consciousness, though the underlying architecture itself can be radically different (which may well color the actual flavor of conscious experience).
Do you read John Michael Greer? He's written quite extensively on this, see especially his 'the King in Orange'. It was weird to then watch s1 of True Detective!!
Loved this post, great take!
I read some of your other ones, and I think you should be careful around the difference between intelligence and consciousness. They are not the same and various levels of intelligence seem possible without consciousness. A great (fictional) example is Blindsight. An ant colony may behave intelligently without being conscious. Although this leads into the question whether intelligent reaction to the environment is even possible without some level of self-model and self-awareness - that is consciousness.
I agree that consciousness and intelligence are not the same thing but I do think they are highly correlated. I think we could agree that a greater consciousness is capable of higher intelligence (i.e. a human brain vs. an ant brain, or even a human brain vs. something not typically understood as conscious like a rock). The creature exhibiting higher consciousness is also more intelligent. I think demonstration of highly intelligent behavior thus suggests (though does not prove) consciousness.
As for consciousness itself, I think it is rooted in the process of information exchange, which is why more complex networks produce higher expressions of consciousness. A more complex network with more interconnected nodes will have a higher proportion of information exchange taking place within the network, yielding the higher order consciousness.
In this, it becomes natural to take the panpsychist view where consciousness is simply a property of all being, because there is always information exchange happening of some kind. There is thus no line where one has to draw a barrier between conscious and unconscious matter. Consciousness is simply allowed to scale up in richness as the information exchange network expands into more complex arrangements. This strikes me as much more natural than the typical assumptions around consciousness. But a consequence of accepting this view is that consciousness does not have to be a classically biological phenomenon. Any network, whether firmly embodied or not, logically produces a higher-order consciousness, though the underlying architecture itself can be radically different (which may well color the actual flavor of conscious experience).
Do you read John Michael Greer? He's written quite extensively on this, see especially his 'the King in Orange'. It was weird to then watch s1 of True Detective!!