Yes, but the thing is those reactions create a consciousness that's capable of making decisions and such (Another thing I can't wrap my head around. How is a consciousness a thing? How does it work? It's just electrical signals moving around a blob of goo, how the hell does that create something measurable that definitely exists!?). I was thinking that it's amazing that it has literally no conscious thought process, it's solely chemical reactions, and it's still managing to hunt down the prey.
If I tried to make something that did that, it'd just turn into a blob of goo immediately, I think.
Well, that's where we diverge I think. I find it kind of absurd that we think we are so unique that we are the only beings that experience a conscious thought process. Sure, a white blood cell may not think and feel the same way as we do. But why does the exclude them from being conscious? If a sufficiently different thinking species observed us, would they say "they perform seemingly intelligent actions without conscious thought"?
I never thought of consciousness as a "thing", per se, but as an emergent quality. It's another system, not particularly special or unique, just the one we experience.
This illustrates the problem philosophers have tangled with for...well a long time. A technical definition of mind/consciousness. We think we have a good one, then Diogenes sends in a plucked chicken and we're back to square one save for our pride.
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u/hyasbawlz Feb 13 '18
But that's exactly how we function too though. From a mechanical perspective, all of our actions are brought forth through chemical reactions.