LETTERS

摘要

The explanation provided by Peter Halligan and David Oakley for consciousness - that it emerged as a side effect of communication -appears to depend on having language to convey useful information (15 August, p 26). It seems clear to me that animals are conscious, with or without language. I also fail to see how language develops without consciousness. I believe it is more likely that consciousness is an emergent, scalable phenomenon, developing when the brain has so many specialised subconscious systems that they survive better with central coordination. This central system would be adaptive when rudimentary and become more adaptive as it grew stronger - and that is the supervisory clearing house we call consciousness. The subsystems would still retain their ability to make independent decisions; the purpose of consciousness may be to coordinate, influence or inhibit such systems by providing new inputs. For example, my dog will search for me so that I can let him out to urinate, instead of just giving in to his subsystem insisting he do it immediately.