like every dog-catcher, swimming coach, or nuclear scientist, i have asked myself the question: WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS? and wikipedia simply says, like every intelligent psychiatrist, NOBODY KNOWS. now that's a fine kettle of fish. what i live by everyday has a name but no reality!
the university of california at santa cruz even has a phd program in 'the history of consciousness' and only one person has ever attained the degree, a famous black panther they dared not not graduate. i think that perfectly states the situation.
of course, i could say consciousness is merely a matter of language, a chilean man a different man than a man of south australia. or i might venture: thought is simply due to gender, and no wonder men and women don't understand each other. but this hypotheses simply begs the question. we must have a simple equation like E+MC SQUARED. einstein always said, make things simple but not too simple. even thoreau might sleep well at night on this supposition.
so, after reading a series of interviews by noted scientists, it's not surprising i stumbled upon the answer to what is consciousness. CONSCIOUSNESS EQUALS MEMORY. certainly i've been saying to myself, can it be this evident? yes, it can. even Goethe maintained: genius is looking at the obvious in a new way. and this is how i look at it.
looking at the development of a child, touch to sight to actually losing a bit of this at five years old, i see the little elf transforming into a human being. this happens due to memory. the child learns a chair will always be a chair, even in the hands of a lion tamer, or a fly-swatter can also be used to punish a child, yet retain its original shape and purpose. the world around him, when she is awake, is an inventory of shapes, colors, smells, and so on.
what about sleep, i ask? simple, i let go of all this knowledge, and an ice cube can become a kiss, a rock become a rocket, and all of it so believable i have to be paralyzed so i don't attempt to act out my dreams. yet, how do i live in the awake world so i don't become paralyzed by too much knowledge? i day-dream. human beings, on average, let their minds wander thirty percent of the time. that's a lot. and in it floating thoughts collide, creating innovations, new fusions, patterns of escape.
thus, consciousness is mitigated by a looseness, not quite as much as at night, but as much as waking from driving a car a thousand miles without remembering a bit of the scenery. i am allowed a double life in a trance. that makes life interesting. on the other hand without the memory of the steering wheel present, i wouldn't arrive at my destination at all.
our subject, WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS, depends on MEMORY, and memory being the flotsam and jetsam with which i structure 'reality' every morning when i rise from bed. hopefully my discovery will make my name as common as EINSTEIN. if it's used to blow up worlds, it can also construct new visions from the ashes. and this is what art tries to do.
“We are more ourselves in our dreams.”
