would on form of conciousness need and other source of conciousness in order to identify itself??

Question

why is this?

Answer 1

It might be difficult to truly understand something that was unique.

Consider dogs. There are lots of different kinds of dogs. So many that we can lump them into groups and subgroups, and understand what makes each one distinct from each other one, as well as what kinds of things they all have in common.

If there were only one consciousness in the universe, it might be difficult therefore for that consciousness to distinguish itself from anything else. There would be no other conscious entities to draw borders between so you could say 'this is me' and 'this is not me', to understand what consciouness MEANS; what's intrinsic to it and what just makes you weird.

Having said all that, I can concieve of a situation where the effects of other consciousnesses might be simulated without other consciousnesses actually being present. If someone were the last being alive, he might have records from other beings who could thusly pass their knowledge and distinctions on to him, even though he would have little basis to make those distinctions himself.

Likewise, at the very bottom level it could be argued that even now it is difficult to have absolute certainty that there ARE other consciousnesses. There certainly SEEM to be, but to what degree seeming is reality may be a matter of debate, especially as machines are becoming more and more able to pass a Turing test.

If you are not familiar with the latter concept, the idea is that if a typical person cannot tell during interaction between a computer and a person, then perhaps a good case could be made that a computer IS a person. Someone recently constructed a robot was able to stand in line, get tickets to a conference, navigate a crowded room to get to a scheduled lecture, and give a speech about itself at an AI conference (link 1). There have been other devices able to engage in protracted conversations with not insignificant ability.

Which again suggests the possibility of things that SEEM to be conscious, but aren't really... they might just be beyond our ability to tell the difference. If that were possible, then the necessity of other consciousnesses is obviously completely moot.

Answer 2

It's hard to say since there are surely forms of consciousness that we are completely unfarmiliar with. Of the ones we know (human), I'd say if you were born with no other intelligent being around you and yet somehow got to late adolescence, I suppose you would not have language and so no real way to think complex thoughts such as "who am i". You would likely be busy surviving.

If some space-dwelling being had a consciousness and lived for millions of years observing the galaxy, I suppose it could eventually understand the idea that it had volition.