Consciousness is esoteric but easily understood if we change the question to “What are we conscious of?” In order to answer that we need a feedback loop. I am conscious of the temperature in the room I am in but I am only aware that other buildings near me have rooms that have some temperature; I do not know if it is hot or cold in them. I am not conscious of the comfort state of those rooms.
Another example is that I am aware of FM radio waves around me but I’m not conscious of them. If they all disappeared suddenly I’d have no idea unless there was a feedback loop such as an FM radio on at the time.
So consciousness is always specific to feedback.
Now let’s factor in autonomy which is required to react to the feedback loop. If I am conscious I am cold in a room I can take action and get a jacket or blanket. Environmental Cause -> Feedback -> Reaction -> Repeat.
This doesn’t work for awareness. I might be aware of the temperature but if I do not ‘feel’ cold then my reaction may not be appropriate. I could ‘hallucinate’ and do the wrong thing; leading me to freeze to death.
You can see a natural example of this in people with congenital insensitivity to pain, (CIP) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the inability to perceive physical pain. These people cannot feel any physical pain. People with this condition might very well freeze to death because there is no pain associated with it for them. They are not conscious of the problem!
I’m gonna summarize. Consciousness is the general term we give to being generally aware of our environment through feedback loops. There is no such a thing as complete consciousness because there are attributes of the universe you cannot percieve directly or indirectly (this indirect part is always subject to change)
So you’re saying that consciousness is just how we react to our senses. If I can’t sense something then I am not conscious of it and if I am not conscious of everything then a greater consciousness doesn’t exist.
What if, like all our senses, consciousness is gradient? Some people have super taste, some people wear glasses. Maybe, some people have a more powerful sense that can perceive things most of us can’t, like thoughts or intentions from other things.
Consciousness is esoteric but easily understood if we change the question to “What are we conscious of?” In order to answer that we need a feedback loop. I am conscious of the temperature in the room I am in but I am only aware that other buildings near me have rooms that have some temperature; I do not know if it is hot or cold in them. I am not conscious of the comfort state of those rooms. Another example is that I am aware of FM radio waves around me but I’m not conscious of them. If they all disappeared suddenly I’d have no idea unless there was a feedback loop such as an FM radio on at the time. So consciousness is always specific to feedback. Now let’s factor in autonomy which is required to react to the feedback loop. If I am conscious I am cold in a room I can take action and get a jacket or blanket. Environmental Cause -> Feedback -> Reaction -> Repeat. This doesn’t work for awareness. I might be aware of the temperature but if I do not ‘feel’ cold then my reaction may not be appropriate. I could ‘hallucinate’ and do the wrong thing; leading me to freeze to death. You can see a natural example of this in people with congenital insensitivity to pain, (CIP) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the inability to perceive physical pain. These people cannot feel any physical pain. People with this condition might very well freeze to death because there is no pain associated with it for them. They are not conscious of the problem! I’m gonna summarize. Consciousness is the general term we give to being generally aware of our environment through feedback loops. There is no such a thing as complete consciousness because there are attributes of the universe you cannot percieve directly or indirectly (this indirect part is always subject to change)
So you’re saying that consciousness is just how we react to our senses. If I can’t sense something then I am not conscious of it and if I am not conscious of everything then a greater consciousness doesn’t exist. What if, like all our senses, consciousness is gradient? Some people have super taste, some people wear glasses. Maybe, some people have a more powerful sense that can perceive things most of us can’t, like thoughts or intentions from other things.