I like your general theme Lon - but the 'non-conscious' is also adaptive. I probably explained Penrose a bit wrong - he has a habit of getting me to buy books on catchy titles full of boring stuff. I rather prefer the Penrose in Dangermouse who has a PhD in fear and knee-trembling. My guess is he's looking for answers like yours - at least trying to get us into the questioning spirit. I can't see why evolution would make us aware of it unless there's some point at which we need to change its flow, something perhaps that can only be done within it rather than from outside design. Other theories have been offered such as 'The Lords of Comsic Jest' in which we are only conscious so god's jesters can take the piss out of us to help with his boredom. I have a feeling we are not just supposed to hang around waiting for the next unexpected asteroid, but perhaps I've played too many video games or wondered too often whether the class in front of me is really awake!
On 5 Oct, 16:24, Lonlaz <[email protected]> wrote: > archytas > > I can't pretend to be more learned than Rodger Penrose, but I can't > see why conciousness can't be a very likely byproduct of evolution. > Obviously our species was well rewarded for devolping the trait. It > seems that a favorite survival development for species is > specialization, which only gets you comfortable niche, until your > environment changes. > > Conciousness seems to be the answer to this, it gives us a theater to > act appropriately in situations that have not happened to us as > individuals, or even as a species. It's an amazing advange that gives > us more longevity than being hardwired to respond to a specific > evironment in a more effcient way. > > It sounds like you feel that conciousness is wasted on many > individuals, or more succinctly, most people waste their > conciousness. I can't disagree with that. The human species has a > very interesting balance between contributing as an individual, and > going along with the herd. Ever since I read 'Germs, Guns, and > Steel', I can't stop thinking of the collective minds of the human > race as several different colonies of bacteria giong through their own > evolutionary process. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
