What would be the lowest form of life to have a consciousness?

[Helm]

And at what point in evolutionary history did this first ever conscious animal emerge on Earth? Also at what stage in development will a human fetus acquire a consciousness?

[Vizsla]

Depends what you mean by consciousness.
There is even a theory that individual cells have it:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~regfjxe/awnew.htm

It is also quite tempting to describe humans as the lowest form of life.

[Helm]

Consciousness would be anything that has any kind of mental existence of any description as opposed to something that has none at all. There must have been a fairly precise point in time when this first occured.

[Alhamar]

Out of human Consciousness (arg, i had to copy and paste it from above) is impossible determine if there is something called Consciousness (again, argh!), in fact there are soemthing called solipsism that is, briefly, a idea about the imposibiliy of trust the ''Reality'' out of your onw mind, out of your own Consciousness maybe.

[Helm]

Out of human Consciousness (arg, i had to copy and paste it from above) is impossible determine if there is something called Consciousness (again, argh!), in fact there are soemthing called solipsism that is, briefly, a idea about the imposibiliy of trust the ''Reality'' out of your onw mind, out of your own Consciousness maybe.

Clearly other forms of life other than humans will have a consciousness as well you generally tell that from the way they behave, they will have emotions and pain response and such, and an ability to learn. All these things would be an evolutionary advantage for the first organism to have evolved consciousness.

According that mammals were the first to evolve it 200 million years ago.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC49701/

According to this it goes right back to worms 540 million years ago.

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/...ciousness.html

[Alhamar]

Clearly other forms of life other than humans will have a consciousness as well you generally tell that from the way they behave, they will have emotions and pain response and such, and an ability to learn. All these things would be an evolutionary advantage for the first organism to have evolved consciousness.

According that mammals were the first to evolve it 200 million years ago.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC49701/

According to this it goes right back to worms 540 million years ago.

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/...ciousness.html

I dont understand this as the definition of consciousness, (what i have put in black in your text) but im clearly not mechanicist so this could derivate into a not scientific topic.

Ill read the last link you gave me anyways and try to understand it.

[Helm]

I dont understand this as the definition of consciousness, (what i have put in black in your text) but im clearly not mechanicist so this could derivate into a not scientific topic.

Ill read the last link you gave me anyways and try to understand it.

Consciousness would be any form of life with an awareness of it's own, it doesn't have to be particularly intelligent form of awareness.

[Ludicus]

Also at what stage in development will a human fetus acquire a consciousness?

Abstract
The emergence of human consciousness: from fetal to neonatal life

A simple definition of consciousness is sensory awareness of the body, the self, and the world. The fetus may be aware of the body, for example by perceiving pain. It reacts to touch, smell, and sound, and shows facial expressions responding to external stimuli. However, these reactions are probably preprogrammed and have a subcortical nonconscious origin. Furthermore, the fetus is almost continuously asleep and unconscious partially due to endogenous sedation. Conversely, the newborn infant can be awake, exhibit sensory awareness, and process memorized mental representations. It is also able to differentiate between self and nonself touch, express emotions, and show signs of shared feelings. Yet, it is unreflective, present oriented, and makes little reference to concept of him/herself. Newborn infants display features characteristic of what may be referred to as basic consciousness and they still have to undergo considerable maturation to reach the level of adult consciousness. The preterm infant, ex utero, may open its eyes and establish minimal eye contact with its mother. It also shows avoidance reactions to harmful stimuli. However, the thalamocortical connections are not yet fully established, which is why it can only reach a minimal level of consciousness

Pediatr Res. 2009 Mar;65(3):255-60.

Full Article The Emergence of Human Consciousness: From Fetal to Neonatal ...

And:
A scientific appraisal of Fetal Pain and Conscious Sensory Perception

[Helm]

"minimal level of consciousness"

There must be some point between "minimal level consciousness" and "no consciousness whatsoever" the line will have to be drawn somewhere.

[Ludicus]

"minimal level of consciousness"

There must be some point between "minimal level consciousness" and "no consciousness whatsoever" the line will have to be drawn somewhere.

"A pending question is the status of the preterm fetus born before 26 wk (<700 g) who has closed eyes and seems constantly asleep. The immaturity of its brain networks is such that it may not even reach a level of minimal consciousness"

[Helm]

What I more mean is something that is awake and active like this.

[Maximus Macro]

Australopithecus

[Helm]

I would say this, I think an important aspect of consiousness is the ability to learn from memory.

[Maximus Macro]

consiousness is knowing of its own existence. Descarthe: cogito ergo sum

[Ludicus]

consiousness is knowing of its own existence. Descarthe: cogito ergo sum

Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am. Damasio counters: "I am, therefore I think"
Amazon.com: Descartes' Error

[Helm]

consiousness is knowing of its own existence. Descarthe: cogito ergo sum

Knowing that you have consciousness is really more of an advanced stage, that would then be self awareness which animals generally lack. Show a dog a mirrior they will think they're looking at another dog.

[Bernem]

Knowing that you have consciousness is really more of an advanced stage, that would then be self awareness which animals generally lack. Show a dog a mirrior they will think they're looking at another dog.

Yes, but inflict pain to dog and the dog will know it's in pain. That's also a sort of conciousness.

Knowing what happens to you is certainly a form of conciousness. This can be taken to another level. Your example equaled conciousness with the ability of a living being to recognize itself. However I bet you can present a dog his own smell and he will recognize himself.

So what is conciousness then? If it's the ability to specifically react to environmental conditions, then even bacteria can do that...

damn gotta go, will continue later

[MrMofo]

So pretty much, what you're asking is: when did multicellular, complex organisms evolve on this planet?

[Helm]

A dog is certainly conscious but it won't conscious of being conscious.

[Maximus Macro]

A dog is certainly conscious but it won't conscious of being conscious.

explain yourself its hard to figur out what you ment