A Working Definition of Consciousness

In this podcast, I tried to present a broader definition of consciousness as a partly automated and partly self-learning knowledge or information system, considering its states, functions, potencies and abilities. I defined consciousness as a knowledge system with an inborn ability, awareness and intelligence to collect knowledge or information or data from different sources, store it, retrieve it and use it for specific ends or purposes. Those ends or purposes may be preexisting, self-willed, self-learned, self-realized or externally imposed from outside sources and conditions. Of them, survival or self-preservation seems to be the most important purpose. At the most basic level, I identified it as a self-guiding, self-aware, self-protecting, self-sustaining, self-improving, self-preserving and self-evolving information or knowledge system only, which is partly preprogrammed or automated and partly self-learning and self-evolving for further automation according to the information it receives and collects from various sources.