#source/paper#consciousness#free-will
note from this paper this
a paper about the scientific purpose of consciousness. a paper that push us further from free-will
a look at the biological function of consciousness
introduction
to responding more flexibly when automatic actions are unsuitable
consciousness can only have biological value as input to a mechanism, or mechanisms, that determine behaviour.
consicousness can only have biological value if it benefits the organism by changing its behaviour.
Therefore, if consciousness is adaptive, its biological value must result from allowing improved behavioural value must result from allowing improved behavioural choices from its possesors. Hence, conscoiusness can only have adaptive value and a biological function by virtue of its being able to influence behaviour
consciousness being the input to a mechanism for manipulating data to generate responses in situations where automatic programs are likely to produce less than optimal behaviour. This mechanism, the flexible response mechanism (FRM), is the source of thoughts, intentional actions, decisions, plans, daydreams, and so on.
No activity of mind is ever conscious
that we never really know why we do the things we do, why we choose the things we choose, or why we prefer the things we prefer
one is only aware exactly what one is going to say after one has said it
no choices or control of behaviour occur in consciousness
note: kegiatan pembobotan di internal input is done unconsciously, and the spotlight cannot choose. It can only see the top one
And, one is not conscious of the computations done by the brain, but only of its decisions and plans; Smith write that the consciousness has no computational powers.
note: disini dibedain antara brain and consciousness. consciousness is not part of the brain. he takes input from the brain
Edelman and Tononi (2000, p. 58) wrote, “when we consciously add two numbers together, it seems that we simply pass a request to our brain, the brain carries it out, and the answer is delivered… When we search for an item in memory, we formulate the question in our consciousness. Unbeknownst to us, the brain seems to search for a while, and suddenly the response is made availabel to consciousness.”
note: more contoh. tentang searching an item. exactly that is how I approach otakku ketika berusaha mengingat lol. so ya aku kinda udah aware kalo cara kerja otakku gitu, even tho i cannot state it clearly dalam bentuk explanation in bahasa.
that “unconscious and inscrutable mechanisms create both conscious thought about action and the action, and also produce the sense of will we experience by perceiving the thought as the cause of the action”
“I know what I think only when I see what I write”
note: That’s weird.. I am okay with the idea, but aku gk merasa pernah mikir gitu
one experiences no mental processes.
note: ini mksdnya, consciousness itu bukan alat pemrosesan, dee gk meproses.
One may experience the starting conditions, stages during processing, or the final outcome of mental processes, but there are always gap in one’s experience, and one never experiences the actual data manipulation that generates the outcome.
note: yep, consciousness has no processing stuff
we may perceive our actions as consciously coused if the thought occurs before the act and is consistent with the act, and there are no other likely causes.
note: this is why we think our thought itu yang menyebabkan our action
When I slowly and attentively reach out and pick a book, I may believe my movements are consciously controlled, but what I experience is intention to control the movement plus consciously monitoring my arm movements.
It seems that action control is always nonconscious
evidence that the core process of making a decision is not experienced; only events before and after this process are accessible to consciousness.
Voluntary and involuntary movements of attention are both controlled nonconsciously.
All the “real work” associated with consciousness is actually not conscious; all behavior (and experiences) of conscious organisms are under nonconscious control.
If visual experience provides survival advantages, consciousness, of which visual experience is an integral part, must also provide survival advantages.
note: salah satu alesan kenapa the experiencing is useful
Consciousness is an extremely complex phenomenon that could not have evolved without having an important biological function.
Experimental evidence that nonconscious systems have evolved for extrantion of suitable external data for consciousness. This could only have occured because consciousness has biological value.
note: ada preprocessing data yang ditangkep ambek input module badan ini, to decide which yang mau di show ke consciousness
our experiences have evolved so as to represent reality fairly accurately whenever that is necessary, and this is evidence that consciousness can influence behavior, and is adaptive.
The fact that the perception of self-related information has evolved so as to be experienced as grouped together, and to have the special quality of personally relating to oneself, is evidence that consciousness has biological value.
note: i don’t understand the correlation
Conscious information can have a dominant influence of responses.
Qualia are a very rare property of neural states; and how they arise is, at present, unknown. The fact that qualia exist but are such a rare phenomenon indicates that they have evolved with special properties for a particular function.
SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE THAT CONSCIOUSNESS HAS BIOLOGICAL VALUE
note: basically dia bilang, too complicated buat muncul sendiri tanpa adanya biological value. it must have one.
benere curiga, apakah ini spandrel?
Whenever one is actively involved with events, one’s experiences are representations of them.
note: we tend to talk or think about the things yang kita aware doang, yang kita conscious doang
If follows that, since consciousness is solely information but is adaptively, and therefore can influence behavior, it must function as input data to a process, that determine behaviour.
note: aku anggep adaptive means changing. And yes, because consciousness is just sebuah wadah, the content does change. consciousness act as input data.
Consciousness is information, and the information of consciousness is represented or encoded as qualia; as sounds, colors, feeling, and so on.
note: this is the definiton of qualia; a subjective representation of the reality YANG punya kuantitatif or kualitatif measure
Therefore, the ability to incorporate qualitative and quantitative properties would seem to be the reason that qualia evolved
note: that is a bold claim. derived from not so strong premises
If thoughts are not expressed in words or pictures; in sounds or images and if they have no associated feelings of any kind, they lack qualia.
unsymbolized thinking
note: qualia less things yang ada di consciounsess
nonautomatic
These activities are relatively flexible compared to the stimulus-response structure of automatic actions such as the orienting reflex or looming reflex.
Consciousness is associated with relatively flexible responding
Therefore, these reviews provide some support for the view that consciousness is the data input to FRM.