Emergence

Acrylic on wood.

24x24"

In the context of consciousness, emergence refers to the idea that subjective experience—the felt sense of being alive—arises from complex interactions among non-conscious physical components, such as neurons in the body.
If consciousness is purely emergent, it cannot be definitively verified from the outside. Subjective experience remains inaccessible, leaving the question of who or what is conscious unresolved. We still debate animal consciousness; we struggle even more with insects—does a butterfly experience the world, or merely react to it?