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The human understanding of 'conciousness' has always been problematical. The interaction of circuits and synapses is capable of inducing behavior, but it is not quite what we need for the task of taking the H.erectus and turning it into the H.sapiens. To comprehend the concept let's use an analogy that is also somewhat mysterious and problematical. When two currents of water converge, given sufficient velocity and quantity, there sometimes appears a 'standing wave'. This anomaly is a wave which remains in one place; seemingly defying the definition of 'wave' itself. There it stands, at once a moving body and a static object. The reason for this phenomenom is not hard to deduce. The force of the two streams of converging water take the path of least resistence; which in this case is up into the air, forming a miniature mountain from a liquid. In the bipartite human brain, the Corpus callosum connects the two half spheres. Humans, like some other vertebrates, employ a vocalization/hearing process. We emit vocalizations and receive responses from other humans. This sets up a type of circuit by which information is converted into sounds; the sounds are projected; and the responses return to us where we hear them. We interpret the meaning of these responses by comparing them to the template kept where the vocalizations are constructed. Our vocalizations become units of information and we use them to construct our thoughts. We think in words. The important part of the circuit in the human is the location of the hearing and of the vocalizations. Each is situated in a seperate hemisphere, requiring the processing to take place through the Corpus callosum. To understand 'consciousness' then, we retrieve the metaphor of the standing wave. The units of information pass from one side of the brain to the other through the Corpus callosum. The interaction of these units within that body becomes 'conciousness'. The conciousness is like the standing wave, for it is constantly fed by both currents. This explains a number of peculiarities of conciousness. We exist in 'real time'. As long as the currents mesh, our conciousness is alive. When we sleep, the conciousness is deprived of the two currents and so we are literally non-existing. Remembering all the while that the hemispheres carry on their activity while we sleep. This activity, unidimensional, is the dream. So, is the conciousness material or immaterial ? Both. The concept of the 'soul' becomes evident for we truly are beings composed of intangible ideas. Yet the ideas are formed from the electrical discharges of the synapses. Humans exist in two different universes; one coporal and one ethereal. The importance of vocalization to our existence cannot be over-stressed. Without vocalization our 'thoughts' would be the mechanical opening and closing of circuits. We need the functions of hearing and vocalization to exist in seperate hemispheres, since only that can lead to the interaction which is conciousness. Among the vertebrates then, those which utilize vocalization for communication of information may be said to think like us. The songbird, the courting frog, and, in our own class, the gibbons and the tarsiers are all creatures with a conciousness. The mammals which do not utilize vocalization would thus have imperfect conciousnesses. The key to the 'haves and have-nots' is the process of estrus in the mammal. Those which have estrus have forsaken the use of vocalization for the conveying of information. They do not need to begin to vocalize, since courtship never occurs when females go into heat. Why bother to court a female when she is anxious for coitis every time she ovulates ? The singing tarsiers and gibbons have passed through the same strange process as ourselves. Because of brachiation, their pelvises have flexed, disconnecting the portions of the female genitalia which are responsible for the estrus behavior. It would be of interest to study the gibbons and tarsiers. They have large bipartite brains which have the circuitry of conciousness. Can they communicate with us, like the similarly-endowed parrot? Questions for another time. Cheers Arne
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