Consciousness results when communication modifies the form of self-estimated fitness

TL;DR

This paper proposes that consciousness arises when communication alters how organisms estimate their own fitness, creating intrinsic meaning and subjective experience through evolutionary feedback mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel evolutionary model where consciousness results from communication-driven modifications of self-estimated fitness, linking it to intrinsic meaning and subjective experience.

Findings

Evolution of intrinsic goal-directedness via self-estimated fitness.

Communication modifies fitness estimation, leading to consciousness.

Primary consciousness emerges from changes in intrinsic meaning.

Abstract

The origin and development of consciousness is poorly understood. Although it is clearly a naturalistic phenomenon evolved through Darwinian evolution, explaining it in terms of physicochemical, neural, or symbolic mechanisms remains elusive. Here I propose that two steps had to be taken in its evolution. First, living systems evolved an intrinsic goal-directedness by internalizing Darwinian fitness as a self-estimated fitness. The self-estimated fitness participates in a feedback loop that effectively produces intrinsic meaning in the organism. Second, animals with advanced nervous systems evolved a special form of communication that modifies the way each partner estimates fitness. The resulting change in intrinsic meaning is experienced subjectively as a primary form of consciousness. This primary form is subsequently used to generate, partly through internalized dialogue, more complex forms of consciousness, such as consciousness of the natural and social worlds, consciousness of the self, and language-dependent forms of consciousness.