Q&A: Does Consciousness Arise from Complexity?
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Does Consciousness Arise from Complexity?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
As is well known, order can create new things that did not exist at the level of the individual particles. An example of this is the liquidity of matter.
A liquid state does not exist at the level of the individual particle, but it does exist at the level of the whole. (Perhaps it describes the arrangement of things.)
If so, why couldn’t something complex create consciousness? Just as kidneys produce urine, and individual atoms create different states of matter.
Answer
I explained this in the book and in the article (weak and strong emergence).