text: why are we self-aware, conscious, or sentient? what makes us realize we exist and we can control ourselves, is this one of the most complicated scientific problems still under research? it has something to do with our species. i say that because most humans are self-aware, conscious, and/or sentient. so it must have something to do with how our anscestors developed in the path that led up to us. being sentient must have helped us to survive or survive better, been an advantage that helped us prosper. our species got genetically 'trained' to be this way, is a theory i think holds some water. yes, it is one of the most confounding scientific problems today. a consciousness studies teacher commented, on a very similar question, that we are only at the most basic understanding about sentience and self-awareness. he compared our knowledge about consciousness to a chimp's understanding of computer programming. being forced to adapt to several different diverse environments is a stimulation that i think could have contributed to our anscestors gradual development of consciousness. once we were not in a comfortable niche, but had to try to survive with no engrained methods of doing so, we might have had to develop a capacity for greater abstract thinking in order to find successful survival strategies. i think that dolphins are in this category too. they seem to be able to reason beyond survival needs, but lack the opposable thumb that allowed us to develop tools.