How pursuit for food might have lead to our occasional existential crisis
What is Consciousness?
All of us have an innate understanding of what consciousness is but attempting to define it leaves us grasping thin air. It’s not just us but even scientists and philosophers have struggled to define the concept. According to the Oxford dictionary, consciousness is “the state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings”. Therefore, every individual experiences consciousness uniquely - I for example have no idea of your consciousness and vice versa. However the study of Human Consciousness can be studied throughout its evolution. Human consciousness likely evolved from simpler forms - like associating the sound or smell of a prey and moving towards it.
But what led to this Evolution of Consciousness? The answer, surprisingly, might lie in our food.
What is the Link Between Food and Consciousness?
A living thing is a part of the universe that sustains itself and reproduces. To do so, it needs some source of energy - either light energy which is stored as sugars for later consumption or the presence of a prey (plant or animal). Over time humans have evolved complex methods to gather food more quickly while also making sure they don't become food themselves. This process started with hunter gatherers - who fought off predators and hunted smaller prey for food, and continues to the present day - when our hunger summons us to the cafeteria or the kitchen and away from mind-numbing work and looming deadlines. The evolution of food seeking is thus linked with the development of complex consciousness, an attribute which has allowed us to rise above the pursuit of food to theorise about our world and continuously develop technology to make our lives easier.
One theory describing the impact of food (among many other possible factors) in the development of our consciousness is outlined in the steps below.
Steps Towards Complex Consciousness
Step One: Directional motion of organisms
Directional motion is an organism's movement towards food and away from predators.
For example, Dugesia tigrina, a tiny worm which lives under leaves and rocks in ponds and streams, is controlled by its inner physiological state and not just an external stimuli, indicating initial stages of self-consciousness. Like all other organisms, our little worm feeds on insect larvae and sponges for energy. When it has just eaten, it is less energetic and rests in a sheltered place, but starts moving when it has starved for a while. It uses chemo-receptors to move towards prey guided by scent.
Step Two: Vision
Vision adds a sense of depth to our world - an enormous step towards the consciousness we, as humans, understand. But even at this stage the developing organism is limited within its sensory range, meaning that it does not yet have what it needs to have complex consciousness. It can only relate what it can directly see to tasty food and can not find its prey if it is disguised or hidden from plain sight.
Step Three: Memory and object permanence
When animals combine memory and sense, they build a reality beyond their sensory range allowing for object permanence. Object permanence refers to the understanding that things continue to exist even when it is beyond their sensory range. It also allows for momentary distractions in the animal’s pursuit of food.
Step Four: Sense of time
The understanding of time is another huge step towards complex consciousness. It enables an organism to look at the present and envision the future. For example, adult chickens forgo eating food placed in front of it if it knows that more food will be given if it waits for just a little longer indicating the understanding of linear time and the consequences of its actions. Understanding and predicting future occurrences is one crucial part of an organisms’ ability to perceive themselves and react to their environment accordingly.
Step Five: Ability to understand the line of thought of other organisms
This ability allows an individual to outsmart a competitor or to escape a predator. Birds show a great understanding of the fact that there are other equally hungry birds and so it hides stored food cleverly and even moves the hiding spot if it notices another bird watching. Many animals also indicate an understanding of the patterns of its predators and use it to evade them.
Step Six: Language
Language allows us to exchange ideas and hypotheses about our world. Exchange of ideas brought about innovations that allowed us, as humans, to go beyond just food. Both the hunter-gatherers and the early farmers only worked to produce food to sustain themselves. Innovations reduced the time required for producing or finding food, thus allowing for the birth of art and entertainment. Thus the development of language was another crucial step in our path to the complex consciousness we enjoy today, where we appreciate and comment on cinema while enjoying some popcorn.
Food for thought
Food has played a major role in the development of our complex consciousness. A simple thought, “move towards food” has evolved to the point where we can question the origins of our perception of the world. So the next time someone chides you for always being on the look-out for food, just tell them it is not your fault that our consciousness was built around the pursuit for food.
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