Ecological Clues to the Nature of Consciousness

Some dynamics associated with consciousness are shared by other complex macroscopic living systems. For example, autocatalysis, an active agency in ecosystems, imparts to them a centripetality, the ability to attract resources that identifies the system as an agency apart from its surroundings. It is likely that autocatalysis in the central nervous system likewise gives rise to the phenomenon of selfhood, id or ego. Similarly, a coherence domain, as constituted in terms of complex bi-level coordination in ecosystems, stands as an analogy to the simultaneous access the mind has to assorted information available over different channels. The result is the feeling that various features of one’s surroundings are present to the individual all at once. Research on these phenomena in other fields may suggest empirical approaches to the study of consciousness in humans and other higher animals.