A Rational Cosmology: The Simultaneity of Conscious Processes

This is Essay LXXXIII of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

In his essay, "Consciousness Itself," Mr. Reginald Firehammer claims that consciousness cannot be physical because all of its processes are unified:

"In the more formal description of this aspect of consciousness I said, 'It would be impossible, at the physical level, to make all the discrete physical events required for detection of separate phenomena be a single event.' What that means, is, there is no physical system which is able to detect sounds (microphones, for example) images (a video camera, for example), pressure and weight (a transponder system, for example) temperature (and electronic thermometer for example), movement (a electro-gyroscope for example) which can all be recognized in all its detail all this data as a single event or process. The information that all these detection systems provide, at the physical level, must forever remain discrete. The laws of physics and information theory, both determined by the principles that govern physical existence, exclude the possibility that this information can be integrated into a single thing or phenomenon, like my consciousness. If my consciousness were a phenomenon of the physical, it would not be a single thing, but a collection of separate and discrete things. Physically, the unity of consciousness is an impossibility."

The so-called "unity" of consciousness is, however, in fact, a simultaneity, in the sense that the human organism does not have a single location which processes all sensory data, thoughts, and emotions. Rather, these occur alongside one another and at the same time. The eyes and one portion of the brain account for seeing; the ears and another portion account for hearing; a third portion of the brain accounts for abstract reasoning.