This question was put to the Sift by @bmacs27 in a comment thread (albeit worded differently), and since I share her/his curiosity as to what @siftbot's drones (you know, we meatbags) think about it, I thought I'd put the question under the light in a Sift talk.

What is "consciousness" (imagine the scare-quotes from here on), and can it survive the death of its physical host?


Here is a brief, unresearched, of-the-top-of-my-head summary of my take on the notion of consciousness and death (i.e. it is the opinion of a non-scientist layperson). Consciousness is an aspect of the complex brain's functioning (in conjunction with the nervous system). At some point the brain (with the help of the nervous system) becomes gradually capable of processing and eventually storing the complex information that is sensory input (probably not all at once). It is at this point - in my uneducated opinion - that consciousness begins, and thenceforth continues to develop and complexify (to different degrees) throughout the animal's early life. Needless to say, this view necessarily entails that when the brain is dead, so is its owner's consciousness.

Discussions about consciousness often arise from or raise the question of person-hood, and when discussing the latter I like to pose the following hypothetical and hear what people think:

Imagine a human who was born (or is to be born) with a genetic malformation rendering it incapable - from the start - of receiving or processing sensory input of any kind. (Personally, I highly doubt such a being could survive, but it's a philosophical mind game, so bear with me.) Is that being a person? Is it, or s/he, conscious, or capable of consciousness? (my answer = no)
Now imagine the same thing, only this time the affliction came after an initial phase of normal reception/process of sensory information. Does the person cease to be a person (i.e. "is dead") if they can no longer process sensory input (including the stockage of previous input, i.e. memory)?


Let the wracking of brains and tapping of keys begin!



irrelevant trivia: the acronym of this title = "dead" when read in French ("décédé). And no, I did not do it on purpose (not that such a thing would be beneath me, hehe)