Consciousness is termed as “an intangible emergent property of information processing.” Consciousness is intricately a two-way processing agency. First, it works as a storehouse of information, which are gathered from sensory organs. These info it matches with the milieus around and creates an imagery of physical model, for the body to deliberate on a decision for appropriate action. This imagery is intangible. This is first part.
Simultaneously, when these models lead to tangible actions and behaviors by body, it also stores those experiences, emerging out of these set of actions of body and converts them into processed information for future decision-making. Therefore, consciousness works not only as warehouse but also as agent of gathering multi-dimensional information. As deliberating imagery of workable models out of the previously stored information is an intangible facility, whereas storing information from actual actions taken by body is a tangible work, the consciousness as a dual mechanism is intangible, emergent and virtual processing of information.
Its dual character makes consciousness a virtual agency. It is not body, not purely brain, not entirely the full spectrum of what we know as mind, but a part of mind. That is why consciousness has an emergent and virtual skin and flesh. At best, it is a bridge between the body and brain, very much part of mind and always evolving. This mechanism makes consciousness a virtual agency and that is why there is so much of mysticism and marvel associated with the idea of consciousness. It is because of the virtual nature of consciousness – the sense of ‘I’, mysticism stands as instinctive first choice of acceptance of realism. That is why the old wisdom as well as science maintains that God, ghosts, angels, soul and after life et al are mystical realisms, which are all inside our conscious self and what we do with the above idea in physical world is a virtualism, emanating out of the very character and nature of our consciousness.
The dualism, which the idea of consciousness creates is – ‘You’ are in your perspective and your perspective is in ‘you’. This needs elaboration. Modern scientific insight into mechanism of consciousness says nothing new or against what old wisdom of ancient world had elaborated thousands of years back. Science however puts facts in objective way, elaborating the details of the mechanism, which creates the dualism of consciousness. The primary hypothesis is the fact that human evolution designed a brain, which is far more complex and multi-functional than other developed organisms. In addition, human brain is not a typical single part, like other organs, e.g. liver. It has evolved in a way, which makes it a layered organ, with every new layer evolving as a pile up on previous layer. Brain is a complex cooperative of multi-functional parts working in an auto-mode synchrony, which we are mostly unaware of.
Other organisms, especially developed animals with sensory system also have this subjective feeling of ‘self’. Science has definitive lead on the fact that all other species have consciousness – a feeling of ‘self’, but it has different shade. However, consciousness in humans is far more pronounced and permanent, as we have a brain mechanism, which makes it possible for us to store far more complex information in our brains; especially those info created out of actions of body and mind, which we call experiences. Apart from that, we have a brain mechanism, which engenders a strong and decisive feeling of ‘experiencing’ the experiences. This however, is an emergent agency and empowerment; we are not born with that faculty.
Science maintains that the conscious feeling that we all have is primarily because we have an evolved and matured process of storing experiences as memories, with a definitive sense of we as our bodies present in all such memories. These memories in which the subject is definitively our own body, creates a sense of self-awareness in our brains. This we refer to as knowledge.
This needs to understand very carefully. Knowledge is not information, our sensory organs collect and pass on to our brains for processing. Knowledge is the ‘processed’ info as physical imagery in brains, which goes through the filters of mind’s memories of experiences, instinctive inclinations as well as those collective experiences, passed onto us from our ambient culture.
Science says – ‘We have experiences as we have knowledge and we have knowledge because we can experience’. The cyclicality of knowledge-experience is key component of consciousness. Understanding this empowers us and enhances our wellness.
We have awareness that we are experiencing something. We also have memories of other experiences of our past. More importantly, we have a definitive and exclusive mental facility of collating all past imageries of experiences and imagining a novel imagery of possible model action and behavior for future.
This facility of intra-polation and extra-polation of imageries in our knowledge inventory has been a decisive tool with us, helping humans produce brilliant solutions of innumerable troubles and problems.
However, we need to accept the fact that this facility itself also doubles up as a major trouble for us. Imagining and extrapolating singular and objective real facts can lead to tested and replicable solutions but in situations, when the collated facts are virtual, subjective and mystical, solutions arrived at shall be subjective, untenable and non-replicable. We can design futuristic spacecrafts as we collate and juxtapose objective, tested and replicable facts of aerodynamics and navigation.
However, we fail to create futuristic solutions to our emotional and psychological troubles, like those in the realm of love, faith, culture etc, as we collate only subjective, virtual and non-replicable facts.
This we have to be wary of and change our attitudes and perspectives to use our consciousnesses for attaining the objectivity and singularity of decision-making matrices.
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