From Tom Jones
Discussions on the nature of consciousness usually assume, rather arrogantly, that the human brain is capable of understanding how it develops feelings of “self” and “consciousness” (13 December, p 36).
I believe this is debatable, because it is obvious that there must be some limit to the brain’s power of understanding. All other animals do have limits: a cat could never grasp the concept of abstract arithmetic, however well it was trained from birth; likewise a chimpanzee could never understand how light is refracted and focused by its own eye.
The interesting question is: how many natural phenomena are beyond our ken, or could our brain ever recognise such a phenomenon? Grand unification theories? What existed before the big bang? Are other universes intertwined with ours? The nature of consciousness?
St Austell, Cornwall, UK
