Musings

Consciousness is a sort of indexing function of the brain, one more or less present in all mammals and, I suspect, most animals. It is the experience of hunger, just as any creature has it: the smell of food, followed by the desire to eat it; but then followed with a reference to other times of hunger,

(12-1-16) Depends on social systems, how many others of your species you routinely react to, how many of them routinely react to you; how you react to their reactions, and they to yours. And the stakes most of all, food and shelter and reproductive success, that make the ability to plan and predict the most available and controllable element of this system a thing to be coveted.