[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

How many neurons does it take to make a consciousness?

The thing about consciousness is that you can't really define it. You know you have it because you experience it. You assume that other humans have it because they are like you. You might further assume that certain other beings have it because they are also like you in many ways (though you'd likely disagree with the idea that theirs is as meaningful as yours).

But you can't prove any of it. You can only say that certain things react to certain stimuli in certain ways, which describes everything in the universe. Is it really that much of a stretch, then, to suggest that perhaps everything in the universe has some form of awareness, some experience of things, albeit probably too different from our own to comprehend?

[jnurmine]

Perhaps consciousness is not a crisp yes/no choice but a gradient... Dolphins are conscious but to a degree less than humans, likewise mice less than dolphins and so on.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Perhaps, and perhaps a person with Down's Syndrome has a lesser consciousness as well, but we have no way of knowing that. Personally I think it is pretty arrogant and shot-sighted of us to think that our experience of the universe is somehow better and more real than anything else's.

[_Schizotypy]

We don't know that yet, but there isn't functionality without the network

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

How much functionality is required? Where is the line? Human beings can live and interact with the world with fully half of their brain removed. Are they conscious? What about Asplanchna brightwellii and its 200 or so neurons?

Here's my point: there is literally no measurement you can perform that will help you draw this line, because the experience of consciousness is entirely subjective.