The study of consciousness is a very interseting feild and many new theories are coming out of it. I heard a really interesting one recently about how consciousness came to be. According to this theory called the Emergance Principal as a group of things (neurocircuits when it comes to the brain) grows, once the groups gets to a critical mass a new property will emerge from the group. This property (consciousness in the brain for example) cannot be understood by studying all of its seperate parts as most things are unerstood in science. A common example of this is an ecosystem. Studyijng all of the animals and plants that make up the ecosystem really will not tell you anything about the ecosystem itself. The ecosystem formed once there were enough things (animals, plants...) that it reached a critical mass and new pricipals emerged know as an ecosystem.
If this theory is true then presumably a computer could become conscious. Once we build one with enough circuits to reach that critical mass consciousness might just emerge. This idea really facinates me because consciousness is really the only thing that makes us different from any other mamal and yet we understand so little about it. I think we will know whether or not this theory is actual true inthe next ten years and if it is who knows where it will take us.
