Knowledge Tree
Relations (1)
cross_type 2.81 — strongly supporting 6 facts
Consciousness is linked to the Cambrian explosion as a proposed evolutionary adaptation to manage complex animal lifestyles [1], with some researchers suggesting it may have driven the event [2] or served as a marker for the 'unlimited associative learning' that emerged during that period [3].
Facts (6)
Sources
Complexity and the Evolution of Consciousness | Biological Theory link.springer.com 6 facts
quoteVeit proposes that consciousness arose as a means for organisms to deal with what he calls pathological complexity. We assume that what he has in mind is the kind of complexity that arises in coevolution and evolutionary arms races, say of the predator–prey kind, which became acute with the evolution of large, image-forming eyes, hence his reference to the Cambrian Explosion. (Merker et al. 2022, p. 55)
referenceGinsburg and Jablonka (2019) identify the Cambrian explosion as the driver of 'unlimited associative learning' (UAL), which they define as a special form of associative learning with a vast openness for new complex behavior and a transition marker for the presence of consciousness.
perspectiveWalter Veit argues that the origins of consciousness are not located in the new dimension of interaction during the Cambrian explosion, but rather in the evolution of sensory experience and the origins of other minds thinking.
claimConsciousness evolved during the Cambrian explosion alongside a new evaluative animal lifestyle characteristic of large parts of the Metazoan branch of life.
claimSome scientists and philosophers, including Trestman (2013), Feinberg and Mallatt (2016), Godfrey-Smith (2016), and Ginsburg and Jablonka (2019), have suggested that subjectivity, agency, and other capacities related to consciousness may provide a partial explanation for the Cambrian explosion.
claimConsciousness is an adaptive solution to the economic trade-off problem of managing a complex body with high degrees of freedom, a problem the author terms 'pathological complexity'. This design problem led to the extinction of complex multicellular animal life following the Avalon explosion and was subsequently solved during the Cambrian explosion.