Question by telecasterisation: When does consciousness develop in human beings?
I have always struggled with the concept of consciousness – the planet was originally swirling gas, then molten rock which then cooled.
What I cannot grasp is where was consciousness at that point – do we assume it did not exist and it sprang from nowhere = ‘Poof, I’m alive’?
My core question is;
Does consciousness exist in both sperm and egg that then fuse to create a combined consciousness, does it suddenly start in the womb from nothing, or does the mother pass it on?
Best answer:
Answer by Martismo
This is a question that is loaded with difficulty. Human consciousness does not just snap on, nor is it present in a fertilised egg cell. Instead consciousness of environment develops slowly from about 3 months after conception. When it is fully developed is also a difficult topic, some people may say at an age of around 1 yr old when a child becomes properly aware of their sevlves as an individual.
Hope this helps
Martin
What do you think? Answer below!
Consciousness, like ‘life’ is not an on/off thing. We get this image of the on/off thing from noticing that death seems to switch it off, permanently, and it cannot be revived. But that does not mean that either consciousness or life *developed* suddenly. It only means that current living organisms need a constant flow of energy to *maintain* consciousness, so that flow can’t be interrupted.
So it is impossible to pinpoint a moment in development (either in evolution, or in development of an individual human being) where consciousness starts. It more correctly *emerges* as a gradual process. Neither a sperm nor an egg cell are any more “conscious” than any other cell in your body. Likewise a fertilized egg cell (fusion of egg and sperm) … it is no more “conscious” than a skin cell or a nerve cell. Over the course of gestation the brain develops the structures needed to support consciousness, but it is an ongoing process. It is even hard to say whether a newborn human baby is even fully conscious. We have no way to measure consciousness except by way of interracting with it … which can’t happen until a baby is able to start communicating beyond instinctual cries.
So there is never a ‘poof’. Not as far as we can test.