Yakk -
Humans - You, I, us, the fleshbags reading this post...
Always - Always.
I see now the errors in my statement. You are correct. My poor choice of words obscured my real thoughts. Let me restate:
Consiousness has always existed and always will - it is everywhere. That is not to say that all 'things' have consiousness, just that it is everywhere. Consiousness is not a part of us, we are a part of consciousness. Just as we ARE a part of consiousness, there must also be things that are not. Otherwise, there could be no concept of consciousness or the 'experience' of consciousness. I'm sure we'll get into this further!
Now, as for your logic
Quote:
A soup of wet hydrocarbons isn't conscious.
We are.
Somewhere between here and there consciousness arrived on the scene.
How do you think it got there?
(intermedite value theorem)
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Your logic implies that in order for consciousness to exist, it must exist in human form. Why? Because you are only now experiencing it as a human? Because you cannot 'remember' a consciousness other than the present one?
Do you accept that I too have a consiousness? How do you know? Because I'm human, no doubt.
I won't debate you that a soup of wet hydrocarbons (great metaphor, by the way) isn't conscious, nor a rock. But to state what is NOT conscious hardly proves that humans are the ONLY consciousness...
I see that I'm taking this WAY out of the conscruct of your original question...that is to say that I'm introducing concepts that are outside the framework of human evolution. My apologies. Simply stated: I believe consciousness has always existed - "god" is consciousness. In order to experience this consciousness, god needed to reference things that were not conscious. At some point, we (humans) [see earlier definition] evolved or became a part of the consciousness or self-aware if you like. Its not a matter of evolutionary efficiency or practicality- it just happened.
You'll have to forgive my ranting; I'm having a VERY hard time answering this, even to myself. I think a better question is "At what point did humans (or their evolutionary predecessors become conscious?"