The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times over many years and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers.
The introduction begins like this:
“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space. Listen…”
Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect flee from the destruction of the Earth by escaping onto an enemy spaceship:
“This is your captain speaking, so stop whatever you’re doing and pay attention.
“First of all I see from our instruments that we have a couple of hitchhikers aboard. Hello, wherever you are.
“I just want to make it totally clear that you are not at all welcome. I worked hard to get where I am today, and I didn’t become captain of a Vogon constructor ship simply so I could turn it into a taxi service for a load of degenerate freeloaders. I have sent out a search party, and as soon that they find you I will put you off the ship.
“If you’re very lucky I might read you some of my poetry first.”
Chapter 5 – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Putty. Putty. Putty. Green Putty – Grutty Peen. Grarmpitutty – Morning! Pridsummer – Grorning Utty! Discovery….. Oh. Putty?….. Armpit? Armpit….. Putty. Not even a particularly Nice shade of green. As I lick my armpit and shall agree, That this putty is very well green.
In order for a physical system to generate experiential qualities, it must exhibit a certain kind of interconnectivity and recursiveness, whether among neurons or among other similarly networked things (such as electrophysiological signaling in plants).
Consciousness is not restricted to brains. Any physical system properly configured to integrate information is, to some degree or another, theoretically conscious.
