On the levels of consciousness and self-awareness of living organisms

Abstract

Analysis of experimental data on the presence of self-awareness in animals, including ants, shows that the number of neurons in the body's brain has almost no effect on the phenomenon of self-awareness. At the same time, already unicellular organisms demonstrate complex purposeful behavior with decision-making. This allows us to hypothesize that a living cell is not only the minimum unit of a living, but also the minimum integral unit of self-awareness. Within the framework of the information approach, a model of the logarithmic dependence of the degree of self-awareness of a living organism on the number of neurons or cells that play their role is proposed.