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derick-day
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Consciousness
“The” problem of consciousness is not one problem, but many.
Some are easy and some are hard.
Consciousness
-the focus of attention -the deliberate control of behavior -the difference between wakefulness
and sleep -the ability of a system to access its
own internal states -the reportability of mental states-the awareness of an “I” who
observes and “runs the system”
Sleep vs. Wakefulness
Why sleep?
Why be awake?
Day and night as different environments
Not well adapted to both
Minimize activity when less well adapted
Other adaptations layered on top
Focus of attention
Many tasks better handled automatically
Don’t muck things up with deliberation
Attention is a limited resource
Cognitive impenetrability (face recognition, memory, saccadic eye movements)
Spend it on things that are odd or special
Deliberate control of behavior
Learning and Consciousness
Some things are conscious when they are being learned but not after they are learned well.
Some things are learned outside of consciousness.
Consciousness is not necessary for learning
(physical, linguistic and social skills)
Unity of Consciousness
I don’t feel like a collection of modules
My senses represent one coherent world not separate ones.
This unity must be a product of selection.
Consciousness
-the focus of attention -the deliberate control of behavior -the difference between wakefulness
and sleep -the ability of a system to access its
own internal states -the reportability of mental states-the awareness of an “I” who
observes and “runs the system” Self awareness
Self Awareness
How widespread is self-awareness?
How would we know?(mirror test)
Chimps, yesGorillas, noOrang-utans, yesMonkeys, no
Self Awareness
What is self-awareness for?
Many animals “simulate” the near future in order to anticipate the outcome of a situation.
Some situations require the self be built in as an actor, e.g., will this branch hold my weight?
Self Awareness
Large climbing animals pass the mirror test (chimps, orangs).
Small climbing animals and large terrestrial ones do not (monkeys, gorillas).
Once the ability to build oneself into simulations evolves other situations (e.g., social ones) can also be simulated.
Self-Awareness and Self-Deception
Why share the truth?
Advantages of deceiving
Advantage of self deception to make deceit more convincing.
Self-serving bias.