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.