The Building Blocks of Consciousness

TL;DR

This paper proposes that consciousness emerges from multiple evolutionary building blocks, including unconscious engram playback, which is present across many species and related to dreaming, challenging the view of consciousness as a uniquely human trait.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that consciousness results from several evolutionary building blocks, emphasizing the role of unconscious engram playback as a key component.

Findings

Engram playback is widespread in birds and mammals.

Dreams are a side-effect of engram discrimination.

Consciousness can be explained as an emergent property of multiple building blocks.

Abstract

Consciousness is presented not as a unified and uniquely human characteristic, but rather as an emergent property of several building blocks, most of which are demonstrably present in other species. Each block has its own rationale under natural selection and could have arisen independently, and the jumps between blocks -- which culminate in consciousness -- are small enough to be evolutionarily plausible. One underappreciated block involves unconscious engram playback and discrimination, and plays a major role in brain storage optimization. This function is present in birds and nearly all mammals and is recognized by its side-effect: dreams.