Question: What is consciousness

Kieran Fraser answered on 10 Nov 2017:

Excellent question! there is no absolute answer for this at the moment – there are a number of theories though! Consciousness is generally a state of being aware, awake, and having a sense of self. For example, you thought about this question and you were curious for an answer – that is a demonstration of consciousness!

A famous philosopher, René Descartes, came up with the phrase ‘I think, therefore I am’ – which was his theory that if we can think about our own existence then it proves there is someone there to do the thinking.

More recently, scientists have been exploring where consciousness lives (maybe in our brains? or in the universe?). The recent advances and interest in artificial intelligence – computers that can think like us – has motivated scientists to find the answer because if we know where our consciousness is and how it works, we can recreate it!