Continuous developement

Awareness and Sentience:

Where does awareness exist?

In biological terms, here on earth, it has been observed in bacteria, such as Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus. Using light reactive cells and sensory philea (hair like) extending from its cell membrane, the bacteria [image] identifies, moves towards, clasps, punctures its preys cell membrane and then consumes its contents. The predatory bacteria is aware of its prey, pursues it, touching it, senses it and takes hold for dinner.

Compared to the above, reptiles and insects are vastly more advanced in awareness.

Humans share over 98% of the same DNA as the great apes. Particularly Chimpanzees and Gorillas. While there is little difference between the senses we share, there is a difference in the reach of human awareness.

By the time of the emergence of the line of hominid [approx 4 million years ago] behaviour and diet was changing or the lineage was changing because of dietary changes. It would be reasonable to consider that these changes were precipitated by a greater awareness of food opportunities.

By [approx 3 million years ago] Homo Habilis was inventing things. Homo Erectus appeared [approx 200,000 years ago] around 170, 000 years ago with the arrival of our current brain size. This was precipitated by the control and use of fire. The likelihood is this occurring around 400,000 years ago. Although direct evidence and deductive reasoning can only agree on 125,000 years ago. {I think this is inaccurate, as this would not be enough time for the changes and benefits from fire cooking food, to result in the reduction of intestinal length needed and the nutrient release resulting in brain growth.} It is possible that fire was being controlled as far back, as has been suggested [1.7 million years ago] by earlier hominids but that may have been sporadic and not originally used for cooking food, but hunting.

With the changes and development [evolution] over time, we arrived at our current brain size.

Along with arriving in time, with our new brains, we bring with us our instinctive and group behaviours and all of the territorial and competitive behaviours that we see today and that we see and share with other species. 

And so our awareness has grown. As we entered into forming communities, we became aware of many problems associated with larger numbers of people and those problems we addressed. Society formed and the dispersal of tasks gave rise to shared time and free time and the creation [evolution] of avenues of endeavour that are entirely brain focused. Intellect, philosophy, science and a more rapid development of technology. With those developments we carried forward our primal instincts and behaviours that while beneficial to survival against outside dangers, has become entirely negative to the societies we all share, as those instincts and behaviours are now very much acting on us, from within.

The point that I am making here, {before I go on to the development of awareness further} is that our awareness is not yet developed enough to use our brains to detach from our primal core instincts [where negative] and behave in a more constructive way.

Individual societies would need to improve and grow their attitude and intention to be entirely inclusive and constructive long-term with increast wealth and quality of life of all types [including government official lives and retirement] and growth to limits over time. And relate internationally with shared regional ambition and collectively as a single species.

Sentience has been [is] defined as the ability to think ('reason') from the ability to feel. (sentience)

In Buddhism a Sentient being is defined by the five aggregates: matter, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness.

The Buddhist definition pretty much includes all animal life on earth.

The combined western definition covers all mammalian life at least, [if for 'reason' we include making a choice.. [to run, to stop, to attack, to not..] then that would include sharks & crocs etc.

These definitions are all very well unless we raise our level of Sentient standard.

We are aware [unlike bacteria and other minor conscious animalia] that there are things that we are not aware of - To borrow the words of Donald Rumsfeld "there are known knowns, we also know there are known unknowns" - on earth, in the universe, of time, of life of ourselves and beyond. At every specific age we can not look back from a decade ahead and be aware of what the experience was, is or will be, no matter how good the training can be.

Our life experience to this day is a repeating process of minimal individual development from a philosophical perspective. It could be argued that included in the modern societies that we grow up in, we are all subject [victims] of cultural environmental controls that are not designed to benefit our growth philosophically or individually.

Awareness and that which we consider of value, the awareness of and understanding of the most worthy of development, has been put into and taken a back seat, in a civilisation that remains but an idea.

Proposal:

Awareness is when it is a subject for growth and development throughout life and for our species, into evolution and beyond.

A Sentient Species:

Human Sentience is [1] The perspective of the individual that recognises the interconnectivity of life, in time on earth and that the individual is part of the collective that is the one human conscious existence. [2] The human conscious existence is derived from the universe and the base of our energy is the same energy existing at the electron level. [3] That there exists another known level [quantum] that connects and is essential. It is a known unknown that we are aware of and that we are connected to and that brings with it a future of development critical to the development of our awareness and the development of our level of sentience.