Particle Physics and Sudoku

Particle Physics is in some ways like an infinitely difficult Sudoku.  An improper clue or a mistake anywhere in the progression may not show up until the final square. Then the entire effort crumbles. Everything that appeared to work then must be questioned.  At that point one must go back to the beginning and start anew since it seems impossible to backtrack.  To backtrack in theoretical or experimental physics is highly improbable, as each step along the way is a child of some great mind.  Some new thinker must say, ”Here is what you missed.” 

On Consciousness

Perhaps the first order of business for a conscious being or system is self preservation and avoidance of damage.

In the simplest system the only requirement is a detector. Such consciousness would be unobservable unless it includes an ability to respond in some manner. An example of a simple system would be a light detector which upon detecting light would turn itself ‘off’, perhaps by temporarily closing an aperture to the detector. I think that this could be the most primitive consciousness … a detector and a response to something detected.
Now, what I think of as self-consciousness is a huge order of magnitudes in complexity beyond this.