What is the use of consciousness?

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Bahman

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This question annoyed me for a while.

Consciousness can minimally be defined as ability to experience. It seems to me that we don’t need the experience if we want to be functional because our action just depend on external stimulus and how we are programed to act. So what is the use of consciousness?

Your thought?
 
Evolutionary psychologists speculate that consciousness evolved as a means for an individual organism to predict the behavior of and to signal or exert control over other individuals. When the others are members of its own species, it leads to high-level cooperation, which bestows an advantage for survival of the species. When the others are of another species, the individual gains an advantage over prey, predators, and competitors.
 
Tomdstone said:
It enables us to pray. And it enables me to solve mathematical problems as I am resting.
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How consciousness help you to solve your problems. Solving a problem is a functional act so you apparently just need to be functional rather than conscious.
 
Beryllos said:
Evolutionary psychologists speculate that consciousness evolved as a means for an individual organism to predict the behavior of and to signal or exert control over other individuals. When the others are members of its own species, it leads to high-level cooperation, which bestows an advantage for survival of the species. When the others are of another species, the individual gains an advantage over prey, predators, and competitors.
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You need to be functional in order to respond properly in a situation. You don’t need consciousness.
 
This may be an issue involving the inadequacy of concepts to capture the reality that includes and thereby transcends them.
I’m going to suggests that processes are and their being is what constitutes consciousness.
A rock is as such.
Plants are a superior form of creation that includes simpler material being.
Animals are even more complex.
And, we who are relational in the image of God, are capable of more than simply reacting to the environment, but to commune with it and act purposely. We are capable of love.
Everything is. We are but a far more complex form of being, although simple in its unity.
That’s my take on it. Things are. The question as to purpose would be that all creation manifests the glory of God.
 
Bahman said:
You need to be functional in order to respond properly in a situation. You don’t need consciousness.
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You dismiss the idea too quickly. Consciousness may be necessary in order to function more effectively and to respond better to the situation. An animal with no consciousness responds to perceptions. An animal with consciousness can respond to realities that lie beyond its perception. That gives the animal with consciousness an advantage.

As an example of a reality that lie beyond perception, consider an animal which perceives another animal. In order to plan its own movements, the first animal must estimate what the other is perceiving, and predict how the other will respond to its own perceptions. The first animal may even have to make multiple predictions of the other’s response and plan it movements according to each prediction. It may even have to include that the other animal is observing it and making its own predictions and planning its own responses.

To respond optimally in this situation, the animal must be able to distinguish between its own situation and that of another. The animal must be able to distinguish between its perceptions and the reality of its situation. The animal must be able to make multiple predictions regarding its future situation, and plan its movements according to each.

It may be that introspection and self-awareness are necessary, or at least efficient, in order to perform these higher level functions. Perhaps awareness of self makes it possible to be aware of other selves and to function more effectively with them. Even by oneself, self-awareness may be a key to envisioning the self in different scenarios and planning for different possible future situations.
 
Beryllos said:
You dismiss the idea too quickly. Consciousness may be necessary in order to function more effectively and to respond better to the situation. An animal with no consciousness responds to perceptions. An animal with consciousness can respond to realities that lie beyond its perception. That gives the animal with consciousness an advantage.

As an example of a reality that lie beyond perception, consider an animal which perceives another animal. In order to plan its own movements, the first animal must estimate what the other is perceiving, and predict how the other will respond to its own perceptions. The first animal may even have to make multiple predictions of the other’s response and plan it movements according to each prediction. It may even have to include that the other animal is observing it and making its own predictions and planning its own responses.

To respond optimally in this situation, the animal must be able to distinguish between its own situation and that of another. The animal must be able to distinguish between its perceptions and the reality of its situation. The animal must be able to make multiple predictions regarding its future situation, and plan its movements according to each.

It may be that introspection and self-awareness are necessary, or at least efficient, in order to perform these higher level functions. Perhaps awareness of self makes it possible to be aware of other selves and to function more effectively with them. Even by oneself, self-awareness may be a key to envisioning the self in different scenarios and planning for different possible future situations.
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We know well that we can do complicated task, like driving, without consciousness once we master the task.
 
Bahman said:
We know well that we can do complicated task, like driving, without consciousness once we master the task.
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I don’t see how you would solve the Atiyah Singer Index theorem without consciousness.
 
Actually it is way more than the ability to experience. It developed as a way to be able to be aware of our environment, to strive in a social group (we are social animals), to plan for the future, to learn from past experience (and learn from other people’s experience), make rational decisions (which involves all this).

Being “aware of our environment” doesn’t only means we are aware of the things around us (although being aware of an external stimulus implies you are conscious) . It also means you can observe the environment and make a decision about your behavior- put it this way, using your senses, you can perceive a large group of people sitting in front of you. This is all your senses can tell you. But if you’ve heard that an extremist group is planning a protest, you will act according to this information (knowing that the situation could become dangerous). If you’ve heard some people are planning to have a book club outside, my guess is that your behavior will be different.
 
Bahman said:
This question annoyed me for a while.

Consciousness can minimally be defined as ability to experience. It seems to me that we don’t need the experience if we want to be functional because our action just depend on external stimulus and how we are programed to act. So what is the use of consciousness?

Your thought?
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We have free will choice so all our actions are not predetermined.
 
Nyx said:
Actually it is way more than the ability to experience. It developed as a way to be able to be aware of our environment, to strive in a social group (we are social animals), to plan for the future, to learn from past experience (and learn from other people’s experience), make rational decisions (which involves all this).

Being “aware of our environment” doesn’t only means we are aware of the things around us (although being aware of an external stimulus implies you are conscious) . It also means you can observe the environment and make a decision about your behavior- put it this way, using your senses, you can perceive a large group of people sitting in front of you. This is all your senses can tell you. But if you’ve heard that an extremist group is planning a protest, you will act according to this information (knowing that the situation could become dangerous). If you’ve heard some people are planning to have a book club outside, my guess is that your behavior will be different.
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We could be aware of our environment without experience. We show this capacity when we master a task.
 
I have to ask first what exactly do you mean by experience? If you mean sensory experiences, yes, you need it in order not only be aware of your environment but " respond" to it. In fact, our brain process every moment sensory information even when we aren’t conscious (as in sleeping, your body will react to changes of temperature, a strong external stimulus, internal stimulus, etc usually by waking you up- because you need to be conscious to solve whatever problem there is). If you want to see how important our sensory experience is for our understanding and awareness of our environment, think of how difficult is for people with a sensory loss to orientate and respond to the environment. And there can be significant difficulties even if only one of our sensory systems is affected.
 
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