Thoughts 16

Thoughts 16

When I was young, people wrote that only humans had consciousness. I had dogs and all I had to do was look at the eyes of my dog as things happened. A dogs eyes are very expressive. Dogs have consciousness. There was and still is no doubt in my mind about dogs. I wondered what consciousness was. Was it awareness? Dogs were sure aware of different circumstances. Some plants move their leaves and/or flowers to catch more direct sun; is that consciousness? It clearly is awareness. I thought of  humans in a coma; are they aware or unaware?

If awareness is a sign of consciousness, no consciousness would be unawareness. That would define the standards for consciousness. The reference frame would be set. Plants and maybe, even one celled life would have a primitive consciousness. I may just be grandiose, but with my limited knowledge that probably puts humans with the most advance consciousness of the life forms we know.

In the 1990's or late 1980's there was a scientific probe sent to Jupiter. Jupiter is classed as a gas giant planet. The probe went until the pressure destroyed it. As I thought about it I realize that the probe had went into the planet. Later, that thought lead me to the understanding that we live inside Earth. We move through the atmosphere of Earth the same way that fish move through the water. The atmosphere is part of the planet.

Unlike rocky planets, which have a clearly defined difference between atmosphere and surface, gas giants do not have a well-defined surface; their atmospheres simply become gradually denser toward the core, perhaps with liquid or liquid-like states in between.

One cannot "land on" such planets in the traditional sense.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/g/gas_giant.htm