Consciousness is a recurrent neural network
My thinking is similar. Long ago, I outlined it on a mailing list as follows:<p>I&#x27;d like to posit a progression of animal awareness. (In the full
knowledge that there is no &quot;tree&quot; or &quot;hierarchy&quot; of evolution; the
progression is merely a convenient way of presenting some data.)<p>1. Single-celled animals, such as amoebae and &#x2F;Paramecium&#x2F;. Many of
these display simple taxic responses: they move towards light, away
from heat, and towards or away from certain chemicals - they pursue
concentration gradients. In other words, a single cell can display
what could be called &quot;voluntary&quot; movement; it does not follow
programmed paths but responds to its environment. You can watch a
Paramecium in a microscope, swimming through a world of bits of plant
and mineral matter in water. If they bumble into something, they
recoil, and set off in another direction. If they catch a scent of
something that might be food, they change direction and set off in
pursuit of it. It&#x27;s much like watching a much bigger animal, like a
mouse, explore an unfamiliar environment. Surprisingly like.<p>Similar behaviours can be observed in all sorts of small animals, like
collembolans and nematodes.<p>Small animals - even single-celled ones - interact with their
environment, responding to stimuli in ways that are more than a
simple, determinate pattern. They are not like a clockwork mouse or
toy that always follows the same path.