Backlit Leaf

This simple picture of a leaf is interesting, I think, because of the way the backlighting makes the leaf stand out from the background and gives it a richer, deeper color. There’s something about this sort of lighting, perhaps similar to stained glass windows, that we find visually appealing.

It takes two separate elements coming together to make this effect, and I think the combination illustrates a subtle aspect about our minds, especially the nature of consciousness.

For the first element, the leaf itself has interesting structure, symmetry, color, and so on. Secondly, the light shining through the leaf makes those details come to life. Without the light, the leaf would seem drab and commonplace, similar to the other leaves around it. Without the leaf, the light would probably be blinding, or perhaps just a featureless glow.

It’s only by combining these elements in the right way that we get something interesting.

How does this relate to consciousness? I think it’s a reminder that we need to keep an open mind as we try to understand how consciousness works, and in particular, where it comes from.

The scientific research in this topic still seems so new that few conclusions can be drawn about the nature of consciousness, where it resides, and so on. While many believe that it results from just the operation of natural processes, albeit very complex ones, others believe that there may be more than just physical interactions.

Some of this latter group point to things like math and logic as examples of transcendent systems, and ask why there couldn’t be other immaterial aspects to reality that would add to the natural, material ones. Others have proposed that consciousness is an aspect of physical reality, analogous to gravity, that exists everywhere but only shows up in certain arrangements of matter.

In either case, they propose something beyond just the standard material reality that we experience in daily life and standard science.

This makes consciousness something like our leaf. While a complex physical system, analogous to the leaf itself, may be necessary, there still needs to be something more to make it special. We see something profoundly special about humans, something that stands out from the background of the rest of reality.

Might there be a backlight involved, something making the result so special?