my favorite topic I love to ruminate about on Fridays with a bottle of red wine (I hope you all have your favorite relaxant with you :) \n so, the Consciousness. The wikipedia gives few rather high level definitions: \n >awareness or perception of an inward psychological or spiritual fact: intuitively perceived knowledge of something in one's inner self >inward awareness of an external object, state, or fact >concerned awareness: INTEREST, CONCERN—often used with an attributive noun. >the state or activity that is characterized by sensation, emotion, volition, or thought: mind in the broadest possible sense: something in nature that is distinguished from the physical. and so on all assuming human is the only possible conscious being. And that's the trap (of our mind) if a human or any other living creature perceived as a bunch of interconnected particles it becomes obvious that the consciousness is nothing but an ability of such a particles group to react (change its state) to another group of particles. So both our brain and a toilet cistern mechanism are reactive to the water level and thus both are conscious, with the first just being usually somewhat more complex and versatile in its reactions (in some humans at least) ok, the difference between automatic toilet flush mechanism and human brain is in brain's ability to adapt and process way wider variety of arbitrary input how can it adapt? Brain doesn't change itself if decisions it takes appear to be the best ones, it only can use previous experience in taking new decisions, but I believe automatic flash can also do this if not mechanically then when quippet with some kind of electronic device not the best ones? yep so it's "ability to react to the input based not only the input itself but also on previous remembered inputs" ? that's what I'm saying the only difference is in complexity, but it's quantitative, not qualitative difference if it's only a bunch of particles then it's not a living creature is there anything else but particles in a living creature what makes it living? ok, since I know that if I say it's god's will what makes it living you won't believe me I say that it's just a fancy set of relationships between those particles which keeps them together and makes them living mmm, hence the living part is actually the relationships between particles, not particles themselves, right? mhm so the life is not material - it's a set of 'relationships'. sounds intriguing you seem to be mixing up here living vs lifeless and conscius vs unconscius