title: Speculations on the emergence of self-awareness in big-brained organisms: the roles of associative memory and learning, existential and religious questions, and the emergence of tautologies.
abstract: This paper argues that self-awareness emerges in organisms whose brains have a sufficiently integrated, complex ability for associative learning and memory. Continual sensory input of information related to the organism leads to the formation of a set of associations that may be termed an organismal "self-image". After providing the basic mechanistic basis for the emergence of an organismal self-image, this paper proceeds to go through a representative list of behaviors associated with self-awareness, and shows how associative memory and learning, combined with an organismal self-image, leads to the emergence of these various behaviors. This paper also discusses various tautologies that invariably emerge when discussing self-awareness. We continue with various speculations on manipulating self-awareness, and discuss how concepts from set and logic theory may provide a useful set of tools for understanding the emergence of higher cognitive functions in complex organisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sderot Ben-Gurion, Be'er-Sheva, Israel. emanuelt@bgu.ac.il
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tannenbaum
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D005086:Existentialism; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology; D010684:Philosophy; D010802:Phylogeny; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D011936:Reality Testing; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012649:Self Concept