The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

[Chrysler]

A being (animal or machine) can only persuade you of its own consciousness, but it cannot prove it.

An even more interesting question in my opinion is, what consciousness is at all. Science shows that in the end, everything is just made out of dumb particles and their interactions, and any seemingly intelligent lifeform is simply the product of evolution. So we could conclude, that everything in the universe, including ourselves, is only machinery running according to physical laws.
The question now is why we are in this world and experiencing it somehow from the viewpoint of one single human being. We know that consciousness seems to be connected to our physical brain somehow. An interesting question one can now ask is, what would happen if someone splitted your brain into two halves (while being fully awake). Not much would actually change (see split-brain), but effectively you would end up with two conscious minds.