Conscious or not
I didn’t really expect to win the prize (well done Anil Seth), but what triggered my entry was my sister’s death last year in July.
Dear Berggruen Essay Competition Participants
Thank you for participating in the 2025 Berggruen Prize Essay Competition! We have announced the winners and published their winning essays. Please find the public announcement here.
This year, we received over 3,000 submissions from 120+ countries and conducted several rounds of rigorous, blind review to select the final winners. While your essay was not among the winners, we deeply appreciate your participation and the thoughtfulness of your work.
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Thank you once again for your contribution. We look forward to seeing your future work!
Sincerely,
The Berggruen Essay Competition Team
Prof G’s response
I didn’t really expect to win the prize, but what triggered my entry was my sister’s death last year in July. Many of you were very kind to me in response to my newsletter after her death (please see ‘Planning for Death’, 11-Aug-2025).
As promised, you can now download and read my essay.
We all know what it feels like to be conscious, but trying to define and study consciousness is a challenging task. Most neuroscientists and philosophers take a brain-centric approach to consciousness, which is probably a view that is too narrow. If consciousness is a product of complex systems, one could argue that systems without a biological brain are also conscious. In this essay, I take a reductionist approach and define consciousness as a relatively simple reflex arc underpinned by data, information, an affector or sensor and an effector response or output. This consciousness arc must also have agency or a purpose, which enables systems in which it is embedded to sense and respond to changes in their environment. Conscious agents can provide feedback to support and improve their functioning, ensuring they survive and propagate themselves. Conscious agents are typically linked to one another to form a system. Sentient consciousness, or a sense of self, is the evolutionary consequence of needing complex behavioural responses to potentially life-threatening situations and to become social. The ability to socialise and form societies is what empowers cultural evolution. I use haemoglobin, an oxygen-sensing and carrying molecule, to illustrate and define consciousness as an information-agency unit.
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Well done! However, 'There are more things in heaven and earth (Gavin) Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Very well deserved, congratulations