{"id":1230,"date":"2023-04-24T17:35:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T17:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cognitive-science\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2026-04-02T22:10:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:10:41","slug":"what-is-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cognitive-science\/2023\/04\/24\/what-is-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Consciousness?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2023\/04\/consciousnes_newsite-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2023\/04\/consciousnes_newsite-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2023\/04\/consciousnes_newsite-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2023\/04\/consciousnes_newsite-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  What it means to be conscious remains mostly a mystery, but scholars are making inroads. (Image source: iStock.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>What Is Consciousness?<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  As artificial intelligence seems to be veering close to self-awareness and we reclassify some animals as \u201csentient,\u201d USC Dornsife scholars discuss what it means to be conscious.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">April 24, 2023<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div 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In July of 2022, a Google engineer claimed that an AI chatbot he was working with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/google-engineer-claims-ai-chatbot-is-sentient-why-that-matters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">had become self-aware<\/a>. The same AI\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2022\/06\/17\/google-ai-lamda-turing-test\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recently passed the Turing Test<\/a>, once considered the gold standard for determining if something was human.<\/p>\n<p>Uncertainty about consciousness also extends into the animal kingdom. The U.K. recently declared that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2021-12-16\/the-uk-has-recognised-octopuses-crabs-and-lobsters-as-sentient-b\/100698106\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">octopuses, lobsters and crabs were sentient<\/a>. Dolphins have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2011\/11\/04\/142024616\/a-researcher-asks-are-dolphins-self-aware#:~:text=Most%20animals%20if%20they%20do,FLATOW%3A%20How%3F\">demonstrated self-awareness<\/a>. This is all complicated by the fact that we don\u2019t exactly know what human consciousness is. Science <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/science-as-we-know-it-cant-explain-consciousness-but-a-revolution-is-coming-126143\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">still can\u2019t explain it.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A recent Dornsife Dialogues panel brought together two scholars from disparate departments at the College to discuss this enduring enigma and answer timely questions.<\/p>\n<div id=\"buzzsprout-player-12713468\"><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/2126441\/episodes\/12713468-exploring-the-enigma-of-consciousness.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-12713468&#038;player=small\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>How do you define consciousness?<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cOnce we get into the nitty gritty of consciousness from a psychological or neuroscientific point, it has to do with experience. You have the experience of your life going on in your organism and the thoughts that are in your mind, and that experience has a perspective of the self,\u201d explains\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty.cfm?pid=1008328\">Antonio Damasio<\/a>, University Professor, professor of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/psyc\/\">psychology<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/phil\/\">philosophy<\/a>\u00a0and neurology, and David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience. \u201cYou don\u2019t create consciousness with the brain alone. You create consciousness with a partnership between the brain, the nervous system and the rest of the living organism.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Are there levels of consciousness? And if so, is human consciousness somehow superior to that of other species?<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m always worried about putting things in a direct hierarchy,\u201d says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty.cfm?pid=1012737\">Tok Thompson<\/a>, professor (teaching) of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/anth\/\">anthropology<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to look around and be impressed by what humans have managed to do. We have iPhones, computers and Zoom, but that\u2019s not really what makes us, us. We spent most of our time as hunter gatherers. There are plenty of hunters and gatherers still out there, and they\u2019re fully as human as I am.<\/p>\n<p>[In terms of levels of consciousness] I would add on the purposeful ones, the altered states of consciousness that people seek. We find this in many, many societies around the world. Shamanism is built on this. There\u2019s a new study out that says gorillas like to spin themselves around to get dizzy, to experience that altered state of consciousness. So, we may not be alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8ILJrGAfmgA?si=CSzOK-7PImyzKVKG\" title=\"Exploring the Enigma of Consciousness\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Find a transcript of this audio <a href=\"https:\/\/uscdornsifedialogues.buzzsprout.com\/2126441\/12713468-exploring-the-enigma-of-consciousness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> under the transcript tab.<\/p>\n<h2>How do we really know if something is conscious?<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cFor me, the test always starts with feelings. Static feelings are the inaugural events of consciousness,\u201d says Damasio. \u201cThey are the test for whether some creature or organism is conscious or not. If that organism has a feeling, like comfort or discomfort, in a palpable way, then it\u2019s conscious. If there is no indication that there is that element of potential suffering or potential joy and pleasure, then it\u2019s not conscious.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Will we one day be able to download our consciousness into a machine to live forever?<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWell, what is this \u2018me\u2019?\u201d asks Thompson. \u201cFor example, I try to eat probiotic yogurt every day. Studies have shown that these little organisms live in your gut, help calm you down and reduce stress. The days you don\u2019t have it, your stress level goes up. So, \u2018me\u2019 includes those little guys in my gut. How could I upload them into the cloud with me? I don\u2019t think we could.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":1232,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Is Consciousness?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/what-is-consciousness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Is Consciousness? 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