CONSCIOUSNESS AS A SELF-ORGANIZING PROCESS - AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

The evolution of consciousness is seen in the context of energy-driven evolution in general, where energy and information are understood as two sides of the same coin. From this perspective consciousness is vie wed as an ecological system in which streams of cognitive, perceptual, and emotional information form a rich complex of interactions, analog ous to the interactive metabolism of a living cell. The result is an o rganic, self-generating, or 'autopoietic', system, continuously in the act of creating itself. Evidence suggests that this process is chaoti c, or at least chaotic-like, and capable of assuming a number of disti nct states best understood as chaotic attractors. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.