Abstract
The first signs of sentience probably appeared soon after vertebrates, in the form of amniotes, adapted to life on dry land. Amniotes are the common ancestors of reptiles, birds and mammals. Consciousness was a risky venture, but proved to be a reasonably successful strategy. Surprisingly, refinements eventually gave rise to a species with the capacity to understand what it is all about. A key observation is that feelings can be described as either positive (rewards) or negative (punishment). They allow for a “common currency” that the brain can use to evaluate what is respectively good or bad for the genes, and thus improve the behavioural strategy. But for feelings to function, the brain needs some form of awareness—hence consciousness.
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Grinde, B. (2016). Conscious Brains. In: The Evolution of Consciousness. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43685-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43685-2_4
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