Self-Consciousness

'''Self-consciousness''' - the awareness of the self as an entity of the environment. Related to self-awareness and the [[Self|"self"]], and maybe to [[Shadow_Emergence|shadow emergence]]. No computer has ever been designed that is aware of what it's doing.

== Berkeley vs. Descartes ==

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Berkeley George Berkeley] said there are no mind-independent things or substances, and coined the phrase "Esse est percipi" ("To be is to be perceived"). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rene_Descartes Rene Descartes] said whether the self is some kind of substance or not, it exists because it's thoughts exist. He is famous for his "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am").

What do we get if we mix both philosophers together? Both think that the perception and creation process are closely associated: according to Berkeley, we create a thing by perception. According to Descartes, all perceptions are created by us. Therefore we

get the following chain:

When we think, certain patterns are brought into existence. Since a brain contains more than 100 billion neurons, each pattern is a vast collection of nearly invisible little things or processes. When we think of ourselves, a pattern is brought into existence, too. It is the identification of a vast collection of nearly invisible little items with a single thing: yourself. Unfortunately, there is no immaterial "[[Self|self]]" hovering over hundred billion flickering neurons except the abstract idea. '''If god is a coordinated hallucination of people, then the mind is a coordinated hallucination of neurons''' - a powerful hallucination used to orchestrate a large group of interacting agents. Religion, the belief in a god, synchronizes brains by periodic rituals to form larger, unified system of behavior. Similarly, the belief in a self synchronizes brain-parts and modules to form a unified system of behavior. In both cases, the belief creates a unifying sense of group agency greater than the sum of the individual agents in the group. The idea of a unified [[Self|self]] and the concept of a soul as the originator of the own thoughts is an illusion and hallucination - but you may ask "if the self is unreal, then who is reading this?". So maybe it is more precise to say that the self is a confusing insight or an insightful confusion. The essence of self-consciousness seems to be this strange combination of insight and confusion. Dan Dennett says it is uncomfortable to understand consciousness. People don't want it explained. They don't want to know that they are just machinery and that their self is a convenient fiction or, in Dennett's words "an imaginary center of narrative gravity" (which would imply to doubt their own existence).

Self-consciousness is something which becomes

What is if self-consciousness is based

on an equation that can not be solved,

because it contains imagination and

wishful illusions on one side and harsh

reality on the other side ? An equation

which is only true for 'imaginary' units ?

Then we can not find an explanation

because there is none.

Can the material brain produce an immaterial  

consciousness by the incredibly complex interactions of  

100 billion neurons? No. But a material brain can

implement, realize and reproduce an immaterial idea.

Certainly 100 billion neurons are capable of  

forming intricate patterns of feedback loops.

Yet in real brains these loops are damped to prevent  

total chaos and over excitation. If it exists, then  

the intricate patterns of feedback loops is mainly  

a reverberation. Therefore these loops are only  

responsible for the strange, short-lived feelings  

associated with self-consciousness.