I happen to be with Sagan on this one, although these ideas certainly are not mutually exclusive; in fact they are complimentary.
Consciousness is an innate emergent phenomenon that happens when you combine basic memory/context, recall, the collective evolutionary unconscious, and so many magnitudes of neurons.
In fact, he even gives dogs (and to some degree, cats) the exactly same specific pedigree of obviously being self-aware/conscious, yet commanding the traits that align with the most basic tenants of "religion": your dog thinks you are a fucking god.
I happen to be with Sagan on this one, although these ideas certainly are not mutually exclusive; in fact they are complimentary.
Consciousness is an innate emergent phenomenon that happens when you combine basic memory/context, recall, the collective evolutionary unconscious, and so many magnitudes of neurons.
In fact, he even gives dogs (and to some degree, cats) the exactly same specific pedigree of obviously being self-aware/conscious, yet commanding the traits that align with the most basic tenants of "religion": your dog thinks you are a fucking god.